THE 

PLEASURES 

OF 

COLLECTING 


•  ',•  •      »  ■ 


Court&sy  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  ,   c,  , 

Early  American  Mahogany  Block-Front  Cabinet-Top,  Rhode  Island  Stylt 
^  Desk,   1750-1775 


^•«^'^.y^'^>-^.><rg^-^.-.^-'«''g^.><^ 


THE 

PLEASURES 

OF 

COLLECTING 

BY 
GARDNER  TEALL 


Being  sundry  delectable 
excursions  in  the  realm 
of  antiques  and  curios, 
American,  European, 
and  Oriental 


New  York 


The  Century  Compejiy 


1920 


Copyright,  1920,  by 
The  Centuby  Co. 


TO 

MY  SISTER 

FRANCES  COTHEAL  TEALL 

IN  LOVING  MEMORY 


5002-1 


DEAR  READER 

Your  true  collector  does  not  apologize  for  his 
hobbies;  he  exalts  their  virtues.  Necessity  may  oc- 
casionally compel  him  to  resort  to  the  camouflage 
of  mid-interest,  as  when  his  family  is  not  in  sym- 
pathy with  his  pursuits;  or,  again,  as  when  fate  has 
placed  him  in  arid  communion  with  unsympathetic 
associates,  individuals  whose  personalities  have  de- 
veloped independently  of  their  souls,  leaving  them 
pronounced  in  the  directions  they  invariably  se- 
lect; directions,  in  consequence,  invariably  divergent 
from  those  paths  which  the  true  collector  loves  to 
tread. 

While  not  secretive  by  nature,  and  by  the  same 
nature  eager  to  share  his  joys  with  his  fellow-beings, 
the  true  collector  is  endowed,  more  often  than  not, 
with  a  certain  intuitive  perception  which  enables 
him  to  appreciate  the  futility  of  hoping  to  convert 
the  unequipped  infidel  to  the  solaces  of  his  own  faith 
in  the  delights  of  the  lares  and  penates  of  another 
generation,  an  intuition  which  warns  him  to  protect 
his  peace  of  mind  by  harmlessly  appearing  to  ac- 
cept with  good  grace  the  commonplacenesses  un- 

vii 


FOREWORD 

doubtedly  enjoyed  by  the  many,  but  with  no  cul- 
pable renunciation  of  his  own  lively  interest  in  the 
quaint  and  curious  mementos  of  the  world  of  yes- 
terdays, a  world  into  which  our  own  to-days  slip, 
one  by  one,  silently,  but  as  surely  followed  by  our 
to-morrows. 

Was  it  not  Charles  Lamb  who  exclaimed:  "An- 
tiquity! thou  wondrous  charm,  what  art  thou^  that, 
being  nothing,  art  everything?  When  thou  wert, 
thou  wert  not  antiquity, — then  thou  wert  nothing, 
but  hadst  a  remoter  antiquity,  as  thou  calledst  it 
to  look  back  to  with  blind  veneration;  thou  thy- 
self being  to  thyself  flat,  jejune,  modern!  What 
mystery  lurks  in  this  retroversion?  or  what  half 
Januses  are  we,  that  cannot  look  forward  with  the 
same  idolatry  with  which  we  forever  revert!  The 
mighty  future  is  as  nothing,  being  everything! 
The  past  is  everything,  being  nothing!" 

Your  true  collector  may  often  maintain  reti- 
cence in  order  that  he  may  enjoy  a  nornial  place 
in  the  community,  undisturbed  by  the  merely  idle 
curious,  the  undeft  rummaging  of  the  clumsy,  the 
curt  depreciation  of  the  supercilious,  the  gushing 
of  the  undiscriminating  susceptible,  or  the  skepti- 
cism of  those  who  measure  the  sanity  of  their  fel- 
lows by  the  canons  of  their  own  irrevocable  and 

viii 


FOREWORD 

undeviating  limitations,  those  to  whom  no  music 
but  the  echoes  of  caverns  can  appeal.  Such  are 
beyond  the  pale  of  any  errand  in  missionary  spirit. 

The  true  collector  is  born,  not  made.  Yet  one 
cannot  discover  the  mirror  without  knowledge  of 
the  reflection.  The  contentment  to  be  found  in 
the  acquisition  and  in  the  contemplation  of  the 
things  that  are  dear  to  the  heart  of  the  antiquarian 
and  the  art-lover  is  a  contentment  that  is  the  gift 
of  the  gods,  always  awarded  the  intelligent,  though 
not  always  disclosed  to  them. 

A  friend,  then,  will  be  he  who  discovers  to  one 
a  treasure  like  that  which  the  joy  of  collecting  un- 
covers. What  we  read  and  what  we  see  pictured 
for  us  is  precious,  indeed,  if  it  holds  up  to  us  the 
image  of  that  which  we  immeditaely  know  to  be  con- 
genial to  our  natural  tastes.  And  so  it  is  that  this 
little  book  is  not  devised  for  savages,  but  tenderly 
has  been  nurtured  in  sympathy  with  the  interest- 
ing and  the  beautiful  things  of  yesterday.  May  it 
find  friends  among  those  who  love  them  as  well  as 
among  those  who  love  the  things  of  to-day  which 
have  prospered  in  their  heritage  from  the  days  of 
long  ago! 

The  author  wishes  to  express  his  grateful  ac- 
knowledgments to  those  who  have  made  possible 

ix 


FOREWORD 

the  preparation  of  this  volume — to  Messrs.  Conde 
Nast  &  Company,  Inc.,  publishers  of  "House  & 
Garden,"  Messrs.  Munn  &  Company,  Inc.,  formerly 
publishers  of  "American  Homes  and  Gardens," 
the  publishers  of  "The  Cosmopolitan,"  the  pub- 
lishers of  "The  House  Beautiful,"  and  the  publish- 
ers of  "The  Sun,"  New  York,  for  permission  to 
include  in  this  volume  portions  of  the  material  con- 
tributed by  him  to  those  periodicals;  to  Dr.  George 
Frederick  Kunz,  Mr.  Richardson  Wright,  Mr. 
Charles  Allen  Munn,  Mr.  Robert  H.  Van  Court, 
Mrs.  Elizabeth  C.  Lounsbery,  Dr.  Frank  W. 
Gunsaulus,  Mr.  Robert  Lemmon,  Mr.  H.  E.  Bauer, 
Miss  Mary  H.  Northend,  Mr.  Andre  M.  Rueff,  Mr. 
T.  C.  Turner,  Mr.  William  A.  Cooper,  Mr.  William 
Francis  Phillips,  Miss  Elizabeth  Robinson,  Mr. 
William  C.  Clifford,  Mr.  G.  H.  Buck,  Mr.  Fred- 
erick H.  Howell,  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art, 
whose  photographs  have  been  drawn  upon  for  illus- 
tration, the  Brooklyn  Museum,  the  Art  Institute  of 
Chicago,  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum,  London, 
and  the  New  York  Public  Library,  and  to  those  au- 
thors whose  works  are  noted  in  the  Bibliography. 

Gardner  Teall 

New  York 

June  4,  1920 

X 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I  The  Pleasures  of  Collecting     ...  3 

II     Collectors  of  Yesterday 9 

III  American  Tables 18 

IV  Tea  and  Antiquity 26 

V    Cup-Plates -36 

VI     Chintz 42 

VII     Pewter 51 

VIII     Samplers 61 

IX     Wax  Portraits 68 

X    Hand- Woven  Coverlets 74 

XI     Chairs 77 

XII  English  Drinking-Glasses      ....  84 

XIII  Stuart  Embroideries 94 

XIV  Delft         98 

XV    Early  Desk  Furniture 106 

XVI     Chelsea 115 

XVII  Wedgwood 125 

XVIII  Saving  the  Pieces 130 

XIX    Lounging  Furniture 134 

XX     Sheffield  Plate       : 146 

XXI     Straw  Marqueterie 153 

XXII     Consoles 164 

xi 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXIII  Sevres  Porcelain 170 

XXIV  European  Enamels 178 

XXV     The   Romance   of   a    Potter:   Bernard 

Palissy        191 

XXVI     Italian  Maiolica 210 

XXVII  Glass  of  a  Thousand  Flowers     .      .      .218 

XXVIII  Antiques  of  Persia  and  of  India     .      .  227 

XXIX     Chinese  Porcelains 238 

XXX  Chinese  and  Japanese  Lacquer  .      .      .  246 

XXXI     Chinese  Snuff-Bottles 253 

XXXII  Cloisonne  Enamels  of  China  and  Japan  262 

XXXIII  Japanese  Sword-Guards     ......  270 

XXXIV  Medallic  Art 278 

XXXV     Engraved  Gems 286 

XXXVI     Fraudulent  Art  Objects 299 

Bibliography 305 

Index 319 


Xll 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Early    American    mahogany    block-front    cabinet-top 

Rhode  Island  style  desk,  1750-1775     .       Frontispiece 

FACIXO 
PAGE 

American  walnut  gate-leg  table,  1675-1700     ...  24 

American  pine  and  walnut  chair-table,  1700      ...  24 

American  cherry  and  maple  gate-leg  table,  1675-1 700  24 

Late  18th  century  English  tea  caddy 25 

Late  18th  century  English  tea  caddies        ....  25 

Ivory  and  two  tortoiseshell  18th  century  tea  caddies     .  25 

Cup-plates   .   " 40 

Early  printed  cotton 41 

Chinese  pewter  jar  with  bronze  cover — early  18th  cen- 
tury        60 

A  Swiss  pewter  wine-flask,  Zurich,  dated  1766     .      .  60 

American  18th  century  sampler 61 

A  dated  English  or  Welsh  sampler,  1787     ....  61 
Wax-portrait  of  Ferdinand  I  of  Sicily,  Italian,  late 

18th  century 76 

Wax-portrait,    subject    unknown,    Italian,    early    18th 

century 76 

Model  of  an  American  peg-loom  bearing  the  name  of 

W.  D.  Fales  of  Providence,  Rhode  Island     .      .  77 
Handwoven  coverlet  in  bed-chamber  of  the  John  How- 
ard Payne  House 77 

xiii 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 


THE  PLEASURES  OF 
COLLECTING 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

BLESSED  is  the  man  who  has  a  hobby!  (de- 
clared Lord  Brougham;  and  of  all  the  hob- 
bies it  is  doubtful  if  any  are  more  blessed 
than  those  of  the  collector  of  antiques  and  curios, 
old  prints,  coins  and  medals,  rare  books  and  bind- 
ings, and  the  like.  "God  never  did  make  a  more 
calm,  quiet,  innocent  recreation,"  good  old  Isaac 
Walton  said  of  angling.  But  that  is  true,  too,  of 
collecting,  which,  figuratively  speaking,  is  in  itself 
a  species  of  the  art  of  angling,  of  dipping  into  the 
quiet  pools  of  unfrequented  places,  there  to  angle  for 
quaint  curios  and  interesting  mementos  of  bygone 
days,  conscious  that  though  the  bait  may  be  small, 
the  catch  may  be  large — besides,  there  is  the  fun 
of  fishing ! 

In  "Le  Jardin  d'Epicure,"  Anatole  France  has 
written:     "People  laugh  at  collectors,  who  perhaps 

[3] 


THE;  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

do  lay  themselves  open  to  raillery,  but  that  is  also 
the  case  with  all  of  us  when  in  love  with  anything  at 
all.  We  ought  rather  to  envy  collectors,  for  they 
brighten  their  days  with  a  long  and  peaceable  joy. 
Perhaps  what  they  do  a  little  resembles  the  task  of 
the  children  who  spade  up  heaps  of  sand  at  the  edge 
of  the  sea,  laboring  in  vain,  for  all  they  have  built 
will  soon  be  overthrown,  and  that,  no  doubt,  is  true 
of  collections  of  books  and  pictures  also.  But  we 
need  not  blame  the  collectors  for  it;  the  fault  lies 
in  the  vicissitudes  of  existence  and  the  brevity  of  life. 
The  sea  carries  off  the  heaps  of  sand,  and  auctioneers 
disperse  the  collections;  and  yet  there  are  no  better 
pleasures  than  the  building  of  heaps  of  sand  at  ten 
years  old,  of  collections  at  sixty.  Nothing  of  all  we 
erect  will  remain,  in  the  end;  and  a  love  for  collect- 
ing is  no  more  vain  and  useless  than  other  passions 
are."  Anatole  France  might  well  have  added  Sir 
James  Yoxall's  observation,  that  "good  for  health 
of  mind  and  body  it  is  to  walk  and  wander  in  by- 
ways of  town  and  country,  searching  out  things 
beautiful  and  old  and  rare  with  which  to  adorn  one's 
home."  Indeed,  collecting  has  aspects  other  than 
the  one  of  discovery,  of  acquisition,  of  entertainment, 
or  of  furnishing  a  pastime :  it  has  its  utilitarian  one 
as  well. 

[4] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

There  is  an  undeniable  and  oftentimes  indefinable 
charm  about  a  home  in  which  well-chosen  antiques 
and  curios  form  part  of  the  decorative  scheme  and  be- 
come part  of  its  furnishing  and  adornment.  Many 
collectors  have  become  such  through  an  increasing 
interest  in  old  furniture,  rare  china,  early  silver,  and 
other  classes  of  antiques  and  curios,  inspired  in  the 
beginning  by  the  acquisition  of  some  object  of  the 
sort,  personal  contact  with  which  has  served  as  an 
example  of  the  pleasure  which  collecting  holds  in 
store  for  one.  The  true  collector  is  not  merely  "a 
gatherer  of  things,"  indifferent  to  the  guidance  of  a 
discriminating  taste.  Rather,  when  he  finds  an  ob- 
ject at  hand,  he  considers  it  from  many  points  of 
view — its  historical  value,  its  significance  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  arts,  its  anecdotal  interest,  its  worth 
as  a  work  of  art,  and  its  workmanship. 

The  intuitive  sense  will  carry  the  amateur  a  long 
way,  but  connoisseurship  will  depend  upon  knowl- 
edge. Those  persons  who  are  absolutely  indif- 
ferent to  the  whys  and  wherefores  of  things,  un- 
interested in  any  effort  to  discover  the  "story"  of  an 
object,  bored  by  its  history  or  unappreciative  of  its 
beauty,  are  hardly  likely  to  become  collectors, 
though  accident  and  the  chances  of  fortune  may 
throw    interesting    things    into    their    possession. 

[5] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

Neither  are  they  likely  ever  to  become  as  Thackeray, 
who,  in  "Roundabout  Papers,"  said  of  a  certain 
antique  and  curio  shop:  "I  never  can  pass  without 
delaying  at  the  windows — indeed,  if  I  were  going  to 
be  hung,  I  would  beg  the  cart  to  stop,  and  let  me 
have  one  look  more  at  the  delightful  omnium 
gatherum  r 

Now,  it  often  happens  that  we  find  a  collector- 
in-embryo — one  who  has  a  desire  to  start  a  collec- 
tion, but  fancies  it  an  undertaking  requiring  very 
special  qualifications — asking:  "How  could  I  hope 
to  become  a  collector  when  I  know  so  little  about  the 
subject  I  think  I  should  be  interested  in?  Then  I 
fear  good  things  cost  too  much,  and  that  real  bar- 
gains have  long  ago  vanished  from  the  mart."  To 
such  a  one  the  reply  can  truthfully  be  made  that  it 
is  by  no  means  difficult  for  the  beginner  to  acquire 
definite  and  valuable  knowledge  on  any  subject  in  the 
collector's  field  that  may  chance  to  interest  him. 

The  way  one  earns  to  collect  (and  that  means  the 
way  one  learns  about  the  things  worth  collecting)  is 
by  collecting.  Contact  with  the  objects  themselves 
is  necessary  to  connoisseurship,  just  as  it  is  one  of  its 
pleasures.  The  collector  learns  more  about  Oriental 
porcelains,  old  English  china,  Dresden  figurines, 
French  enamels,  Russian  brass,  Italian  laces,  or  Bo- 

[6] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

hemian  glass  by  having  a  few  representative  pieces 
of  them  at  hand  for  study  than  he  could  learn,  so 
far  as  helpful  knowledge  fitting  him  to  judge  is 
concerned,  from  volumes  on  the  subject.  While  this 
contact  with  actual  objects  is  necessary  in  developing 
a  connoisseurship  (one  may  have  it  visually  in 
museums  or  have  access  to  private  collections;  the 
shops,  too,  will  teach  one  much),  all  the  accessible 
writings  on  the  subject  should  be  consulted,  as  com- 
parative study  increases  the  interest  and  confirms 
or  corrects  one's  personal  deductions  and  opinions. 

Supremely  fine  examples  of  old  furniture,  china, 
silverware,  bronzes,  miniatures,  and  the  like,  have 
not  often  been  "picked  up  for  a  song."  The  col- 
lector must  remember  that  the  pastime  of  collecting 
is  not  one  of  recent  development.  Indeed,  the  an- 
cients were  collectors  of  the  rare,  curious,  and  beau- 
tiful. The  Medici  were  renowned  for  gathering  in 
their  places  objets  de  virtu^  and  few  collectors  of  note 
of  to-day  could  outvie  the  enthusiasm  of  Horace 
Walpole,  who  turned  Strawberry  Hill  into  a  veri- 
table museum.  All  this  goes  to  show  how  keenly 
sought  for  have  been  all  art  objects  of  unusual  im- 
portance. Naturally,  when  rare  occasion  brings 
them  to  the  mart  they  command  high  prices.  How- 
ever, it  is  not  for  one  to  despair  because  he  cannot 

[7] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

collect  museum  pieces,  to  cry  for  those  things  which 
have  little  to  do  with  the  pleasure  of  collecting  be- 
yond the  interest  their  contemplation  affords.  That 
the  by-paths  which  the  collector  may  tread  are  lit- 
erally bristling  with  bargains  is  true.  Certainly  the 
small  collector  need  not  become  discouraged.  For 
instance,  the  author  continually  finds  within  the 
boundaries  of  New  York  city  alone  numerous  ob- 
jects that  any  collector  of  limited  means  could  ac- 
quire with  rejoicing  heart.  One  day  it  is  a  yel- 
low Wedgwood  mustard-pot  for  two  dollars,  an- 
other day  a  genuine  Paduan  medal  for  fifty  cents; 
then  a  Persian  lacquer  mirror-frame  for  a  dollar,  and 
a  Japanese  sword-guard  by  Umetada,  signed,  for 
half  as  much  I  It  adds  to  the  interest  of  collecting 
that  while  the  collector  soon  learns  where  to  look  for 
things,  he  constantly  meets  with  them  also  where  they 
are  least  expected,  and  the  country  holds  as  many 
treasures  hidden  away  for  the  keen  collector  as  does 
the  metropolitan  stronghold. 


[8] 


CHAPTER  II 

COLLECTORS    OF    YESTERDAY 

THIS  is  an  age  in  which  Achilles  gives  way  to 
Douglas  Fairbanks,  Helen  of  Troy  to  Mary 
Pickford.  At  least  Homer  in  the  original 
is  unpopular  and  to  confess  to  a  liking  for  Virgil  in 
the  Latin  is  to  be  frowned  upon  by  those  who  have 
persuaded  certain  of  our  universities  to  turn  their 
backs  on  the  very  cultural  presences  that  have  given 
structure  to  civilization.  As  for  myself,  I  shall 
continue  to  be  old-fashioned.  Only  this  morning  I 
have  been  dipping  into  good  old  Pliny's  "Letters." 
Now  more  than  ever  I  am  convinced  that  those  who 
cried  most  loudly  against  the  classics  were  those 
who  knew  nothing  about  them.  Where,  I  ask,  in  all 
literature  will  there  be  found  more  things  of  human 
interest  than  in  the  writings  of  those  old  masters  of 
antiquity*? 

It  is  Francesco  Petrarca's  chief  title  to  fame  that 
he  was  an  inveterate  collector  of  classical  writings, 
that  he  devoted  himself  with  an  unending  enthusi- 
asm to  the  recovery  of  the  literature  of  the  Ancients. 
And  yet  he  knew  naught  of  Greek,  little  enough  of 

[9] 


/ 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

Latin  from  the  point  of  view  of  scholarly  attain- 
ment in  the  language.  What  he  did  realize,  did 
sense,  was  the  value  to  intellectual  development  of 
these  bygone  literary  Titans,  and  at  Padua  he  warred 
against  the  medievalism  which  was,  after  all,  noth- 
ing more  than  a  warring  against  the  complacency  of 
his  'Own  times,  just  as  the  attitude  of  those  of 
to-day  who  fight  against  such  of  the  finer  things  of 
life  as  are  to  be  reached  only  through  contact  with 
the  original  writings  of  Homer,  Euripides,  Aristo- 
phanes, Sophocles,  Horace,  Virgil,  Cicero,  Csesar, 
Ovid,  Plato,  Pliny,  and  the  rest  is,  in  effect,  smugly 
complacent  in  its  acceptance  of  cultural  things  as 
they  stand. 

Renan  called  Petrarch  the  first  modern  man;  if 
only  we  could  be  as  modem  I  And  what  a  debt  the 
world  owes  to  his  collecting  proclivities,  an  instinct 
connected  with  an  intelligence  I 

Of  course,  there  were  hundreds,  one  may  venture 
to  say  thousands,  of  collectors  who  were  his  con- 
temporaries; for  the  love  of  beautiful  and  of  inter- 
esting things  is  seldom  separated  in  the  normal  per- 
son from  the  desire  to  own  them,  a  desire  that  has 
produced  more  history  and  more  romance  than  one 
would  dream  of. 

There  are  those  who  dissolve  pearls  in  wine,  those 

[lO] 


COLLECTORS  OF  YESTERDAY 

who  treasure  them  in  necklaces;  these  two  sorts  are 
in  the  world.  To  Petrarch  each  scrap  of  writing  was 
as  precious  as  a  pearl  to  be  added  to  a  necklace  to 
adorn  the  fair  throat  of  Learning,  and  his  accom- 
plishment, his  devotion  to  this  hobby,  marks  him  as 
the  very  Prince  of  Collectors  of  Yesterday. 

I  suppose  there  have  been  collectors  ever  since 
things  were  discovered  to  be  collectable.  Every  ob- 
ject of  human  creation  seems  eventually  to  fall 
within  the  collecting  class.  Father  Time  saying  when. 
C  Flini  Caecilii  Secundi  Epistularum  sounds  some- 
what formidable  to  the  ears  of  a  foe  to  the  classics, 
but  it  lately  yielded  this  morsel  from  the  eighth  let- 
ter of  Book  VIII,  a  letter  from  Pliny  to  his  good 
friend  Rufinus : 

You  have  now  all  the  town  gossip ;  nothing  but  talk  about 
Tullus.  We  look  forward  to  the  Auction  Sale  of  his  effects. 
He  was  so  great  a  collector  that  the  very  day  he  purchased 
a  vast  garden,  he  was  able  to  adorn  it  completely  with 
antique  statues  drawn  from  his  stores  of  art  treasures. 

Ancient  Domitius  Tullus!  would  that  we  knew 
how  your  sale  came  out !  Did  you  turn  in  your  tomb 
that  some  Eros  from  Praxiteles's  own  hand,  some 
Amor  chiseled  by  great  Phidias  himself,  fetched  but 
a  hundredth  of  its  valued  Or  did  you  rush  off  to 
Dis  and  to  Proserpina  with  the  gleeful  tale  of  how 

[11] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

friend  Pliny,  who  thought  to  get  something  for  noth- 
ing, was  forced  up  to  a  prince's  ransom  by  Lucanus 
in  the  matter  of  that  little  sardonyx  gem,  engraved 
by  Pyrgoteles,  finer,  the  auctioneer  declared,  than 
the  Perseus  by  Dioskourides  *?  How  human  it  is  to 
wish  to  know ! 

Those  old  Romans  were  great  collectors.  Even 
when  the  creative  spirit  had  degenerated  they  were 
appreciators  of  the  fine  things  which  the  Greeks  had 
produced.  Petronius,  that  arbiter  elegantiarum  of 
Nero's  court,  amassed  thousands  of  remarkable  art 
treasures  that  even  the  emperor  longed  to  possess. 
Incurring  Nero's  displeasure,  and  dying  under  the 
Emperor's  orders,  he  disdained  to  imitate  the  ser- 
vility of  those  who,  under  like  penalty,  made  Nero 
heir  to  their  possessions  and,  as  Suetonius  tells  us, 
filled  their  wills  with  encomiums  of  the  tyrant  and 
his  favorites.  Petronius  broke  to  bits  a  precious 
goblet  out  of  which  he  commonly  drank,  that  Nero, 
who  had  coveted  it,  might  not  have  the  pleasure  of 
using  it.  Incendiary,  violinistic  Nero,  Nero  who 
on  shaving  off  his  beard  for  the  first  time  put  it  in 
a  golden  box  studded  with  precious  gems!  What 
would  not  collectors  of  a  lock  of  hair  of  this  great 
one,  and  of  that,  give  to  discover  the  beard  of  Nero ! 

I  dare  say,  in  no  time  was  human  nature  more 
[12] 


COLLECTORS  OF  YESTERDAY 

perfectly  understood  than  in  Roman  days.  Even 
Augustus  Csesar  was  wont  to  amuse  himself  by  a  de- 
vice explained  by  gossipy  Suetonius  as  follows: 
"He  used  to  sell  by  lot  amongst  his  guests  articles  of 
very  unequal  value,  and  pictures  with  their  fronts 
reversed;  and  so,  by  the  unknown  quality  of  the  lot, 
disappoint  or  gratify  the  expectation  of  the  pur- 
chasers. This  sort  of  traffic  went  round  the  whole 
company,  every  one  being  obliged  to  buy  something, 
and  to  run  the  chance  of  loss  or  gain  with  the  rest." 
How  many  of  us  who  have  frequented  the  art  sales 
in  American  cities,  from  the  old  Clinton  Hall  auc- 
tion days  to  the  present,  would  have  imagined  that 
Pliny  took  such  things  as  seriously,  Augustus  Csesar 
such  things  in  jest?  How  old  the  new  world  is, 
how  new  the  old ! 

From  the  time  of  the  ancient  Athenian  vase  shops, 
and  even  from  long  before  that,  to  our  own  day, 
when  we  may  browse  in  the  realms  of  antiquarians 
at  home,  the  bazaars  of  the  Far  East  and  the  quaint 
inglenooks  of  Europe  when  we  are  traveling,  collect- 
ing has  been  a  passion  with  the  many  as  well  as  a 
mania  of  the  few.  But  we,  ourselves,  are  more 
prone  to  collect  the  things  of  yesterday  than  were 
the  collectors  of  yesterday  to  collect  the  things  of  the 
centuries  before  their  time. 

[13] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent, 
found  time  when  steering  through  the  perilous  chan- 
nels of  endless  family  feuds  to  immortalize  himself 
as  a  collector.  To  the  efforts  of  Cosimo,  his  grand- 
father, are  due  those  priceless  classical  and  Oriental 
manuscripts  which  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  Lauren- 
tian  Library  in  Florence.  The  grandson  was  worthy 
of  his  forebear.  Through  Joannes  Lascaris  he  pro- 
cured from  the  monastery  of  Mount  Athos  two 
hundred  manuscripts  of  greatest  importance  for  the 
Laurentian,  an  incomparable  collection,  which,  to- 
gether with  other  works  of  art,  disappeared  at  the 
sacking  of  Florence  during  the  rule  of  Lorenzo's 
wretchedly  incompetent  son,  Piero.  Lorenzo,  not- 
withstanding his  love  for  ancient  works  of  art,  was 
a  ready  patron  of  the  art  of  his  time.  Lorenzo's 
daughter,  Catherine  de'  Medici,  had  all  the  Medici 
love  for  art,  and  she,  too,  patronized  living  artists 
lavishly,  as  her  husband's  father,  Francis  I,  had 
done  in  France  before  her.  She  it  was  who  took 
such  constructively  active  thought  for  the  planning 
of  the  Tuileries,  and  her  interest  in  books,  manu- 
scripts, and  other  things  led  to  enriching  the  collec- 
tions of  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale. 

What  a  remarkable  list  of  collectors  France  can 
write   in   her   Golden   Book   of   Art-Lovers — Jean 

[H] 


COLLECTORS  OF  YESTERDAY. 

Grolier,  De  Thou,  Pierre  Jean  Mariette,  Cardinal 
Mazarin,  Comte  de  Caylus — to  name  but  a  few  of 
literally  thousands !  Nor  must  we  forget  Madame 
de  Pompadour,  whose  library  and  marvelous  collec- 
tion of  works  of  art  were  sold  after  her  death. 
There  is  no  question  that  Madame  de  Pompadour 
took  a  constructive  interest  in  art  and  literature,  an 
interest  which  led  Voltaire  to  assert  that  without 
her  patronage  the  culture  of  her  time  would  have 
found  itself  in  sorry  plight  under  the  rule  of  a  king 
whose  thoughts  had  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  the 
finer  things  of  life,  that  king  who  stood  at  the  palace 
window  looking  forth  as  the  cortege  of  the  Pompa- 
dour passed  by  in  a  drizzling  rain  and  remarked; 
"It  is  a  wet  day  for  the  Marquise  I" 

Charles  I  of  England  was  a  king  whose  art-col- 
lecting proclivities  produced  rich  spoils  indeed  for 
the  Cromwellians.  In  the  quaintly  worded  old 
catalogue  recording  his  possessions  we  find  noted 
among  other  things,  "Item,  a  landscape  piece  of 
trees,  and  some  moorish  water,  wherein  are  two 
ducks  a  swimming,  and  some  troup  of  water  flowers, 
being  done  in  a  new  way,  whereof  they  do  make 
Turkey  carpets,  which  was  presented  to  the  King  by 
the  French  Ambassador,  in  an  all  over  gilded  frame. 
1  ft.  lo  X  2  ft.,  5  wide." 

[15] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

Some  of  King  Charles's  treasures  in  the  century 
following  passed  into  the  hands  of  Horace  Walpole, 
who  housed  them  in  his  villa  at  Strawberry  Hill,  that 
"Gothic  castle"  which  revived  the  English  eight- 
eenth-century taste  for  Gothic  design.  Austin  Dob- 
son's  "Horace  Walpole"  says  of  the  master  of 
Strawberry  Hill : 

As  a  virtuoso  and  amateur,  his  position  is  a  mixed  one. 
He  was  certainly  widely  different  from  that  typical  art 
connoisseur  of  his  day, — the  butt  of  Goldsmith  and  of 
Reynolds, — who  traveled  the  Grand  Tour  to  litter  a  gallery 
at  home  with  broken-nose  busts  and  the  rubbish  of  the 
Roman  picture  factories.  As  the  preface  to  the  JEdts  Wal- 
polianae  showed,  he  really  knew  something  about  painting; 
in  fact,  was  a  capable  draughtsman  himself;  and  besides, 
through  Mann  and  others,  had  enjoyed  exceptional  oppor- 
tunities for  procuring  genuine  antiques.  But  his  collection 
was  not  so  rich  in  this  way  as  might  have  been  anticipated, 
and  his  portraits,  his  china,  and  his  miniatures  were  prob- 
ably his  best  possessions. 

We  must  not  judge  Walpole's  virtuosity  by  all 
that  accumulated  in  his  house — Wolsey's  hat,  Van 
Tromp's  pipe-case.  King  William's  spurs,  and,  I  dare 
say,  some  chips  of  stone  from  the  Parthenon  and  a 
vial  of  water  from  the  Jordan!  But  let  it  be  re- 
membered that  these  things  were  gifts  to  Walpole, 
and  as  such  were  necessarily  within  reach,  just  as 
the  cut-glass  wedding-present  pickle-dishes  of  our 

[16] 


COLLECTORS  Or  YESTERDAY 

own  time  must  be  given  sb  tlf^v  against  the  sudden 
appearance  of  their  donors.  Perhaps  there  is  merit 
in  the  discipline  of  such  tender-heartedness. 

Well,  gone  is  Master  Horatio,  gone  the  wits  and 
beaux  and  belles  of  his  day,  but  he  remains  in  our 
thoughts  as  the  Georgian  master  of  Chelsea  china 
pseudo-shepherds  and  shepherdesses,  the  most  ele- 
gant of  collectors,  the  most  brilliant  of  subjects  in 
the  sovereign  realm  of  precious  bric-a-brac.  We 
are  glad  that  he  lent  his  presence  to  our  ranks. 

So,  you  see,  collecting  is  not  merely  a  fad  of  re- 
cent generations.  In  that  which  has  gone  before 
there  is  ever  a  peculiar  fascination.  The  field  is 
unbounded,  its  possibilities  limitless;  things  which 
to  us  of  to-day  are  commonplace,  by  reason  of  their 
niches  in  our  every-day  life,  will  be  treasures  to 
posterity  a  hundred  years  hence.  Thus  will  the  love 
of  collecting  go  on  from  generation  to  generation, 
with  new  converts  always  ahead. 


[17] 


/' 


CHAPTER  III 

AMERICAN    TABLES 


AMONG  collectors  in  America  there  is  an  ever- 
increasing  interest  in  "things  American." 
One  of  the  most  attractive  fields  in  which 
one's  hobby  may  browse  is  that  of  old  furniture. 
Nearly  every  one  appreciates  the  early  furniture 
of  good  design  and  cares  to  know  something  of  its 
history.  America,  both  in  colonial  times  and  in  the 
period  following  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
produced  pieces  of  many  sorts.  Some  of  it  was  ex- 
cellent, most  of  it  was  good,  and  a  little  of  it  was 
wholly  of  an  indifferent  quality.  As  table-makers 
the  early  American  craftsmen  exhibited  much  skill, 
and  such  examples  of  their  work  as  are  to  be  met 
with  cannot  fail  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  alert 
collector  who,  having  a  house  of  his  own,  knows  that 
by  some  mysterious  providence,  no  matter  how  small 
that  house  may  be,  there  will  always  seem  to  be 
room  in  it  and  need  in  it  for  "just  one  more  table," 
if  the  table  is  a  "find"  and  of  interest  as  an  American 
antique  of  genuine  authenticity. 

[18] 


AMERICAN  TABLES 

With  tables,  as  well  as  with  other  pieces  of  furni- 
ture, the  early  American  craftsmen  who  produced 
the  finer  examples  did  not  allow  themselves  any  de- 
cided departure  from  European  models  that  were 
sufficiently  numerous  with  the  American  furniture- 
makers  by  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  and 
at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth.  Naturally,  much 
furniture  from  England  came  into  the  colonies 
throughout  the  period  of  settlement  and  develop- 
ment, followed  by  many  pieces  of  French  design  and 
manufacture. 

If  we  turn  now  to  English  reflections  in  American 
work  we  shall  find  comparisons  of  decided  interest. 
There  is  often  little  or  nothing  to  distinguish  early 
American  pieces  from  their  English  prototypes. 
However,  there  was  no  "slacking,"  in  quality  of  ma- 
terial, workmanship,  of  finish  in  American  furniture. 
The  colonial  cabinet-makers  were  thorough  and 
conscientious,  although  not  always  "artistic,"  per- 
haps. Certainly  these  craftsmen  had  at  their  com- 
mand the  finest  woods — maple,  pine,  walnut,  birch, 
chestnut,  and  the  ships  brought  in  quantities  of  ma- 
hogany. Extant  examples  of  this  early  craftsman- 
ship show  at  once  the  intrinsic  merit  of  stanch  con- 
struction and  virile  line  that  makes  them  so  much 
sought  by  collectors.     Their   sincerity   of   design, 

[19] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

while  not  always  accompanied  by  the  refinements  of 
striking  grace,  compels  our  attention  and  respect. 

Previous  to  1776  we  must  expect  American  native 
furniture  to  run  parallel  in  style  (with  natural  lag- 
ging tendencies,  of  course)  to  the  English  periods 
with  which  they  were  contemporary.  In  earliest 
colonial  times,  times  when  voyages  were  few  and  far 
between,  large  shipments  of  furniture  were  not  to  be 
considered.  As  the  wealth  of  the  individual  colon- 
ists increased,  luxuries  came  to  hold  a  place  in  trade 
which  they  could  not  have  held  at  an  earlier  day  in 
the  New  World.  With  the  advent,  too,  of  colonial 
officials,  fat  of  purse,  sent  over  by  the  mother  coun- 
trf,  came  articles  to  enhance  as  well  as  to  continue 
their  comfort.  One  could  be  more  contented  with 
an  easy-chair  than  without,  and  little  by  little  the 
rude  bench  furniture  of  the  Pilgrims  was  locally  de- 
veloped (reverting  to  English  patterns)  into  a  more 
attractive  and  acceptable  sort  of  furniture,  or  was 
augmented  by  importations.  At  the  same  time  this 
increased  demand  for  cabinet-making  invited  Eng- 
lish craftsmen  to  seek  their  fortunes  in  the  New 
World,  and  before  long  a  very  respectable  home  in- 
dustry, both  in  the  North  and  in  the  South,  was 
making  its  influence  felt. 

Fortunately  New  England  thrift  (or  perhaps  it 

[20] 


AMERICAN  TABLES 

was  conservatism)  has  preserved  to  us  many  pieces 
of  this  early  American  furniture,  some  of  it  dating 
back  to  the  time  of  King  James  II.  These  New 
England  Jacobean  pieces  follow  simple  lines  in  gen- 
eral, with  here  and  there  a  piece  of  ornate  type.  In 
the  reign  of  William  and  Mary  and  that  of  Anne  a 
rapidly  increasing  number  of  English  craftsmen 
migrated  to  the  American  Colonies,  where  they 
helped  to  perpetuate  the  styles  of  this  period.  It  is 
not  at  all  uncommon  to  meet  with  very  fine  examples 
of  the  Queen  Anne  period  which  were  contemporane- 
ously produced  by  American  craftsmen;  in  fact,  some 
of  the  New  England  cabinet-makers  became  so  pro- 
ficient that  the  products  of  their  shops  rivaled  the 
output  of  British  makers  both  in  stanchness  of  con- 
struction and  accuracy  of  contour.  The  well-pro- 
portioned cabriole  legs  of  many  pieces  of  this  de- 
scription extant — the  generic  term  for  furniture  with 
a  "knee,"  derived  from  the  French  cabriole  (goat- 
leap) — are  as  well  designed  as  any  of  the  examples 
then  being  produced  in  the  mother  country  by  the 
skilled  English  cabinet-makers.  Naturally,  the  lo- 
cal colonial  production  of  Chippendale,  Adam,  Hep- 
plewhite,  and  Sheraton  styles  was  supported  by  the 
affluence  to  which  the  colonies  attained.  During  the 
troubles  of  the  Revolution  the  importation  of  ma- 

[21] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

hogany  by  the  colonies  was  diverted  by  Great  Brit- 
ain. Substitutes,  for  the  time — and  this  began  to 
mark  a  decline,  with  fluctuations  in  the  materials 
used — had  to  be  found,  such  as  that  of  the  sweet- 
gum  tree,  Liquidambar  Styraciflua^  which  in  appear- 
ance and  general  character  is  very  similar  to  ma- 
hogany, its  distinguishing  features  being  a  slightly 
lighter  color  and  grain. 

The  Dutch  influence  seems  less  to  have  entered 
the  traditions  of  American  furniture  than  that  of 
England  or  of  France.  A  fair  amount  of  furniture 
was  imported  by  the  Dutch  of  New  Amsterdam  from 
Holland,  and  numerous  authentic  pieces  of  this 
Dutch  furniture  have  come  down  to  us;  such,  for 
instance,  as  the  gate-leg  table  which  is  preserved  in 
the  Manor  House  at  Croton-on-Hudson.  But  local 
cabinet-makers  soon  came  to  blend  features  of  the 
English  styles  with  those  of  the  Dutch  designers  and 
finally  purely  English  styles  superseded  the  others. 

Still  another  local  division  of  colonial  furniture 
was  that  introduced  by  those  settlers  known  as  the 
Pennsylvania  Dutch.  This  type  of  ''Dutch"  must 
not  be  confounded  with  the  Dutch  of  New  Amster- 
dam. Coming  to  Pennsylvania,  these  immigrants 
brought  with  them  their  gaily  painted  peasant  furni- 
ture, and  in  the  early  days  of  the  colony  they  pro- 

[22] 


AMERICAN  TABLES 

duced  much  of  that  sort  for  their  own  use.  Hence 
their  furniture  cannot  be  said  to  have  been  a  prod- 
uct designed  for  the  market.  Examples  of  it  did 
not  stray  far  from  the  locality  of  their  production, 
save  in  those  instances  where  the  settlers  emigrated 
to  other  parts  of  the  country.  Even  then  it  ap- 
pears to  have  exerted  little  or  no  influence  outside 
Pennsylvania  territory.  Stiff,  conventional  flow- 
ers and  fruits,  birds,  and  decorative  bands  charac- 
terize the  decorations.  Pieces  of  this  sort  are  still 
to  be  found  in  central  and  southeastern  Pennsyl- 
vania, although  the  majority  of  such  decorated  wood 
antiques  extant  consist  of  bridal  chests  and  small 
boxes. 

In  the  North  much  of  the  early  furniture,  espe- 
cially tables,  was  made  of  maple,  pine  and  birch. 
Walnut,  of  course,  was  a  great  favorite,  particularly 
with  the  earlier  cabinet-makers  of  Pennsylvania, 
where  superb  slabs  of  beautiful  black  walnut  were 
milled  from  the  wonderful  old  trees,  that  so  soon 
disappeared  through  this  demand. 

We  must  not  be  surprised  to  find  so  little  early 
furniture  of  the  South,  for,  despite  the  wealth  and 
culture  of  Virginia,  the  Carol inas,  and  Maryland  in 
colonial  times,  these  Southern  colonists  were  equally 
fashionable,  and  discarded  the  old  for  the  new  before 

[23] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

the  dawn  of  the  nineteenth  century,  earlier  than  did 
the  Northerners.  A  search  of  the  southern  states 
will  scarcely  yield  one  piece  of  Jacobean  design.  A 
hunt  for  original  William-and-Mary  will  be  equally 
fruitless.  But  in  the  style  of  Queen  Anne,  many  ex- 
cellent pieces  will  be  found. 

No  story  of  American  furniture,  no  matter  how 
brief,  can  be  written  without  mentioning  the  name 
of  Duncan  Phyfe,  the  New  York  cabinet-maker 
whose  artistic  products  justly  won  him  the  sobriquet 
of  "The  American  Sheraton." 

The  period  between  1795  ^^^  1830  was  marked 
by  a  persistent  disinterest  in  all  "things  English," 
and  an  ardent  admiration  for  all  "things  French," 
and  this  prejudice  showed  itself  in  the  furniture. 
American  cabinet-makers  adapted  these  French  de- 
signs according  to  their  lights,  and  the  result  was  not 
always  unsuccessful.  At  the  very  end  of  its  influ- 
ence the  work  sank  to  a  low  level  of  artistic  merit. 
Before  that  time  it  had  known  the  apex  of  artistic 
line  in  the  works  of  Phyfe,  and  if  we  are  to  judge 
American  Empire,  it  were  better  to  use  the  high 
standards  set  by  his  famous  productions. 

The  tables  of  this  period  were  usually  made  with 
square  ends,  the  dining-tables  being  of  the  extension 
type  having  drop  leaves  and  other  leaves  which  could 

[24] 


Courtesy  Mr.  Frederick  H.  Howell 

Late  18th  Century  English  Tea  Caddy 
Late  18th  Century  English  Tea  Caddies 
Ivory  Tea  Caddy  and  two  Tortoise-shell  of   18th  Century 


AMERICAN  TABLES 

be  inserted  on  pedestal  tables*  At  this  time  centre- 
tables  came  into  vogue.  These  were  ordinarily  cir- 
cular in  shape  and  usually  rested  on  ornate  pedes- 
tals rising  from  a  plinth  supported  by  winged  claw 
feet.  Some  of  these  tables  were  rectangular  and 
some  had  double  tops  that  folded  out  or  could  be 
turned  up  against  the  wall.  The  "sofa  tables"  of 
Phyfe's  design  were  oblong  and  had  narrow  drop 
leaves  at  both  sides,  the  ends  supported  by  the  Lyre 
motif. 


[25] 


CHAPTER  IV 

TEA    AND    ANTIQUITY 

ONE  afternoon  of  a  day  late  in  autumn  we 
were  having  tea  in  Camber  well.  The  home 
of  our  English  friends  was  a  house  redolent 
with  memories.  The  Brownings,  Carlyle,  and  many 
others  had  in  days  gone  by  gathered  beneath  the  hos- 
pitable roof.  It  was  one  of  those  houses  whose  ex- 
terior gave  hint  of  an  interesting  history.  Not  all 
interesting  houses  do  that.  This  one  particularly 
did,  so  much  so  that  it  lent  much  of  its  fascination 
(or  appeared  to  lend  it)  to  its  neighbors. 

Perhaps  we  were  in  the  mood  for  thinking  so,  for 
had  we  not  dropped  in  to  a  tea  at  another  wonderful 
house  a  few  steps  away  but  the  day  before?  And 
what  a  house  that  had  been  I     What  a  host ! 

I  think  all  the  treasures  of  the  earth  must  have 
been  gathered  there  to  commemorate  the  yesterdays 
of  beautiful  things,  of  interesting  personalities. 
There  was  the  actual  chair  in  which  George  Eliot  sat 
when  writing  "Romola";  I  had  sat  in  it  drinking 
tea !     A  plate  of  delectable  biscuits  was  at  my  right 

[26] 


TEA  AND  ANTIQUITY 

— on  Carlyle's  table!  If  I  had  been  ill-mannered 
enough  to  devour  all  the  biscuits,  I  am  sure  that 
plate  would  have  revealed  itself  as  equally  delectable 
Sevres;  I  guess  as  much  from  its  edge.  What  an  aft- 
ernoon that  had  been!  Charles  Lamb's  bookcase! 
The  Persian  lacquered  mirror  that  had  belonged  to 
Rossetti ! 

"And  did  you  know,"  said  my  companion,  "that 
our  host  is  the  original  of  Walter  Pater's  'Marius  the 
Epicurean,'  his  best  friend?"  It  was  then  that  I 
gasped  forth  something  about  a  Mahomet  in  Mecca. 
"You  must  remember,"  said  the  other  indulgently, 
"that  you  are  in  London." 

And  here  we  stood,  this  other  afternoon,  on  the 
threshold  of  another  happy  adventure ! 

"Tea  and  antiquity  seem  to  go  amazingly  well  to- 
gether," said  our  host  of  this  second  day,  "but  our 
friend  Marius  has  probably  shown  you  that.  Still, 
his  hobbies  are  many.  Ours  are  few.  If  we  have 
not  ridden  in  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  world, 
we  have  ridden  furiously  in  one  direction — tea." 

With  curiosity  piqued  we  followed  to  the  library. 
"Arthur !"  warned  our  hostess,  as  the  master  of  the 
house  paused  before  the  glass-encased  shelves  to  the 
right  of  a  tapestry-hung  doorway. 

"No,"  he  laughed,  "I  'm  not  going  to — yet !     You 

[27] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

see,  every  book  on  those  shelves  has  to  do  with  tea, 
old  tea,  new  tea,  good  tea,  poor  tea.  Everything 
any  one  has  ever  known  and  printed  about  tea  is 
there.  You  will  find  the  first  edition  of  Pepys's 
Diary,  in  which  that  indefatigable  chronicler  re- 
marks 1  did  send  for  a  cup  of  tee  (a  Chinese  drink), 
of  which  I  never  had  drunk  before.'  Then  there  is 
the  rare  first  edition  of  Philippe  Sylvestre  Dufour's 
^Manner  of  Making  Coffee,  Tea  and  Chocolate,'  a 
quaint  little  volume  printed  in  1685,  and  just  there" 
— our  host  pointed  through  the  glass — "is  Simon 
Paulli's  'Commentarius'  of  1665." 

"Arthur,"  laughed  our  hostess,  "remember  the 
fate  of  Carleton  and  Lord  North  in  forcing  tea  down 
the  throat  of  America,  while  Britannia  wept !" 

"I  meant  to  go  straight  ahead !"  our  host  replied 
with  affected  meekness,  holding  back  the  tapestry  to 
admit  us  into  the  very  sanctum  of  this  entertaining 
collector's  worshiping. 

The  large  room,  despite  its  generous  dimensions, 
was  cozy.  Although  filled  almost  to  overflowing 
with  rare  bits  of  china,  prints,  brasses,  pewter — in 
fact,  with  a  wealth  of  objects  that  would  delight  the 
heart  of  any  collector — there  was  order  in  it  all. 
One  did  not  tumble  over  a  Turkey-red  tea-cozy  or 
mistake  it  for  a  hassock.     Nor  did  one  have  to  com- 

[28] 


TEA  AND  ANTIQUITY 

press  elbow  to  side  to  keep  from  precipitating  pre- 
cious tea-cups  to  the  floor  underfoot.  In  this  in- 
stance a  remarkable  collection  of  antiques  and  curios 
furnished  a  whole  room. 

"I  cannot  vie  with  Marius  in  offering  you  the 
throne  of  George  Eliot,"  said  our  host,  ''but  here  is 
a  very  comfortable  arrangement  once  occupied  by 
Queen  Anne." 

"Yes,"  commented  our  hostess;  "Arthur  went 
threadbare  to  have  it,  because  Alexander  Pope  hap- 
pened to  have  written : 

Here,  thou,  great  Anna !  whom  three  realms  obey, 
Dost  sometimes  counsel  take, — and  sometimes  tea. 

In  fact,  I  once  arrived  just  in  time  to  prevent  him 
from  buying  Leigh  Hunt's  spectacles  just  because — 
what  was  it  Leigh  Hunt  said  of  tea,  Arthur^  I 
never  can  remember." 

"  'Oh,  heavens !  to  sip  that  most  exquisite  cup  of 
delight  was  bliss  almost  too  great  for  earth ;  a  thou- 
sand years  of  rapture  all  concentrated  into  the  space 
of  a  minute,  as  if  the  joy  of  all  the  world  had  been 
skimmed  for  my  peculiar  drinking,  I  should  rather 
say  imbibing,  for  to  have  swallowed  that  legend  like 
an  ordinary  beverage  without  tasting  every  drop 
would  have  been  a  sacrilege.'  " 

[29] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

"No  wonder  you  were  keen  for  the  spectacles !''  I 
cried. 

"But  I  've  never  heard  of  Leigh  Hunt's  spectacles ! 
I  don't  believe  he  ever  wore  them.  You  have  to 
make  allowance  for  the  attitude  my  better  half  holds 
toward  tea!" 

"No,  my  dear,"  our  hostess  replied  sweetly,  "you 
know  I  love  these  things  as  much  as  you  do."  It 
was  true. 

Now,  while  we  did  not  talk  tea  throughout  all  our 
little  visit,  we  did  eagerly  examine  the  old  tea-furni- 
ture. There  was  Delft,  pottery,  and  porcelain  of  all 
sorts,  marvelous  tea-caddies,  a  collection  of  prints 
and  caricatures  of  the  Boston  Tea  Party. 

"There  were  other  tea-parties  over  there  in  Amer- 
ica," our  host  explained;  "you  neglect  them  terribly! 
There  was  the  'Tea-party'  of  Philadelphia  in  1773, 
the  'Tea-party'  of  Eden  ton  in  1774  and  the  same 
year  the  'Tea-parties'  of  Cumberland  County  and  of 
Greenwich,  New  Jersey.  I  have  them  all  in  the 
library!" 

We  saw  the  books  before  coming  away.  Not  the 
least  interesting  was  Chippendale's  "The  Gentleman 
and  Cabinet-Makers'  Director,"  issued  in  London 
in  1 762,  with  its  designs  for  tea-tables  and  tea-chests, 
and  the  Hepple white  book  of  1787.     Dr.  Samuel 

[30] 


TEA  AND  ANTIQUITY 

Johnson  was  rated  a  prodigious  tea-drinker  in  his 
day,  "beyond  all  precedent."  We  did  not  compete 
with  his  record,  nor  yet  with  that  of  Bishop  Burnet, 
who  thought  nothing  of  sixteen  cups  of  a  morning, 
but  we  did  not  find  our  tea  taste  stinted,  that  delight- 
ful afternoon  at  CamberwelL 

Venus  her  myrde,  Phoebus  has  her  Bays 

Tea  both  excels,  which  she  vouchsafes  to  praise. 

We  found  Waller's  lines  coming  to  mind  many 
times  afterward,  when  we  had  come  to  discover  them 
in  a  dusty  tome  of  1662  which  we  found  for  a  penny 
in  a  book-stall  and  added  it  to  tea-ana !  And  what 
response  to  the  memory  of  Camber  well  adventures 
was  evoked  when,  home  again  in  our  own  country, 
we  chanced  upon  Thomas's  "Massachusetts  Spy"'  and 
read  therein  that  touching  farewell  to  tea ! 

Farewell,  the  teaboard  with  its  equipage 

Of  cups  and  saucers,  cream  bucket  and  sugar  tongs. 

The  pretty  tea-chest  also  lately  stored 

With  Hyson,  Congo  and  best  Double  Fine. 

We  began  then  with  enthusiasm  to  read  up  on 
tea.  It  behooved  us  to  begin  with  the  "tea-party" 
episodes  our  host  in  Camberwell  had  hinted  at  as 
neglected  by  our  histories.  For  one  thing,  there 
were  the  autographs  to  be  sought  of  many  of  the 

[31] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

revolutionary  participants.  We  found  a  book  on 
the  subject,  long  since  out  of  print,  and  many  a  hint 
was  contained  therein.  This  was  "Tea  Leaves"  by 
Francis  S.  Drake,  "Being  a  collection  of  letters  and 
documents  relating  to  the  Shipment  of  Tea  to  the 
American  Colonies  in  the  year  1773,  by  the  East 
India  Tea  Company."  There  we  found  many  por- 
traits, facsimile  signatures,  etc.  It  is  a  book  worth 
looking  for.  Our  copy  cost  us  but  two  dollars.  On 
a  fly-leaf  some  one — not  the  poet  himself,  alas  I — 
had  copied  these  lines  of  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes's 
"A  Ballad  of  the  Boston  Tea  Party" : 

No !  never  such  a  draught  was  poured 

Since  Hebe  served  with  nectar 

The  bright  Olympians  and  their  lord 

Her  over-kind  protector; 

Since  Father  Noah  squeezed  the  grape 

And  took  to  such  behaving, 

As  would  have  shamed  our  grandsire  ape, 

Before  the  days  of  shaving; 

No,  ne'er  was  mingled  such  a  draught, 

In  palace,  hall  or  arbor 

As  freemen  brewed  and  tyrants  quaffed 

That  night  in  Boston  Harbor ! 

And  how  completely  the  old  rancor  of  it  is  gone  in 
these  days  when  our  hearts  beat  in  unison  with  the 
hearts  of  our  British  cousins!     How  different  are 

[32] 


TEA  AND  ANTIQUITY 

our    tea-parties    to-day,    American    and    Britisher, 
brother  and  brother  I 

When  we  began  collecting  tea  things,  we  did  not 
get  everything  we  wanted!  One  of  the  tantalizing 
treasures  beyond  our  reach  was  the  poetical  effusion 
of  Mr.  Nahum  Tate,  who  lived  from  1652  to  1715 
and  celebrated  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury with  "Panacea,  a  poem  upon  tea,  with  a  dis- 
course on  its  Sov'rain  virtues;  and  directions  in  the 
use  of  it  for  health."  A  greedy  Msecenas  outbid  us 
at  the  book  auction  where  we  thought  only  ourselves 
had  discovered  or  could  possibly  wish  to  acquire  it ! 
With  Dr.  John  Coakley  Lettson's  "The  Natural 
History  of  the  Tea-Tree,"  printed  in  London  in 
1799,  we  were  more  fortunate.  Likewise  Mr.  T. 
Short's  "A  Dissertation  upon  Tea,  Explaining  Its 
Nature  and  Properties,  Showing  from  Philosophical 
Principles,  the  Various  Effects  It  Has  on  Different 
Constitutions ;  Also  a  Discourse  on  Sage  and  Water," 
produced  in  1730,  was  ours  for  the  expenditure  of 
ten  shillings,  a  rare  piece  of  fortune  coming  to  our 
door  through  the  good  graces  of  a  Birmingham  book- 
seller's catalogue.  I  fancy  good  Queen  Anne  set 
the  pace  to  second  place  for  sage  and  water!  We 
are  still  on  the  lookout  for  the  "Treatise  on  the  In- 
herent Qualities  of  the  Tea-Herb,"  by  "A  Gentle- 

[33] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

man  of  Cambridge,"  whose  scholarly  effusion  came 
from  a  London  press  in  1750. 

In  the  course  of  our  adventures  at  home  we  found 
that  tea-collectors  were  more  numerous  than  we 
should  have  dreamed  them  to  be,  perhaps  because 
the  subject  embraced  collecting  in  almost  every  field 
— furniture,  old  silver,  china  and  pottery,  pewter, 
brasses,  books,  prints,  and  what  not;  to  say  nothing 
of  collectors  of  Oriental  tea  things,  as,  for  instance, 
the  lady  who  has  seven  hundred  and  thirty-two  in- 
teresting Japanese  tea-pots,  the  equally  interesting 
lady  who  has  a  collection  consisting  of  as  fine  as 
possible  a  tea-cup  of  every  sort  of  porcelain  and 
ware  of  which  tea-cups  have  been  fabricated  since 
the  memorable  days  following  the  presentation  of 
two  pounds  of  tea  to  King  Charles  II  by  the  East 
India  Company.  Another  collector  has  gotten  to- 
gether a  great  number  of  fine  Japanese  color-prints, 
the  subjects  of  which  have  to  do  with  the  tea  cere- 
mony, and  yet  another  gentleman  ''goes  in"  for  the 
Cha-no-yu  (tea  ceremony)  pottery  of  Japan.  Prob- 
ably the  most  interesting  collection  of  tea-caddies  in 
America  is  that  owned  by  Mr.  Frederick  H.  Howell 
of  New  York.  Tea-caddies  offer  to  the  collector  an 
entertaining  hobby,  for  although  they  are  by  no 
means  common,  they  are  still  to  be  "discovered"  in 

[34] 


TEA  AND  ANTIQUITY 

many  of  those  nooks  that  long  since  have,  perhaps, 
given  up  other  collectable  things.  I  remember  once 
dwelling  with  enthusiasm  on  the  pleasures  of  collect- 
ing tea  things. 

"I  have  a  little  hobby  along  that  line  myself," 
remarked  one  of  the  group,  "teaspoons." 

"Don't  you  have  to  be  careful?"  was  the  question 
the  man  next  to  him  could  not  refrain  from  putting. 

But  perhaps  our  friends  are  not  always  as  sym- 
pathetic with  the  collector's  pursuits  or  as  courteously 
attentive,  and  there  is  always  a  time  to  stop  before 
one  becomes  a  bore ! 


[35] 


CHAPTER  V 

CUP-PLATES 

IT  is  surprising  how  rare  the  cup-plates  of  the 
eighteenth  century  and  the  early  nineteenth  cen- 
tury have  become,  considering  their  universal 
use  during  that  period  when  they  were  regarded  as 
necessary  and  fashionable  accessories  to  the  tea-set. 
In  the  days  of  our  great-grandmothers  the  etiquette 
of  tea-drinking  was  markedly  different  from  that 
which  maintains  in  our  own  day.  Then  the  tea-cup 
occupied  much  the  position  that  the  tea-bowl  still 
holds  with  the  Chinese,  and  the  saucer  that  of  the 
tiny  Chinese  cup.  In  other  words — we  blush  to  con- 
fess it  I — our  tea-drinking  ancestors  used  the  saucers 
of  their  tea-cups  to  cool  their  tea  in,  and  while  the 
saucers  were  so  utilized,  tiny  plates  (like  the  plates 
of  a  doll's  tea-set)  were  employed  as  holders  for  the 
cups,  thus  to  protect  the  polished  top  of  the  tea- 
table  or,  perhaps,  the  trays  of  satinwood  from  being 
stained  by  the  moist  cup  rims. 

Just  why,  when  so  many  of  these  little  cup-plates 

[36] 


CUP-PLATES 

were  in  use,  so  few  have  survived  seems  a  mystery. 
While  tea-cups,  cream-pitchers  and  sugar-bowls 
abound,  cup-plates  still  remain  elusive.  This  is  be- 
cause these  tiny  objects,  being  truly  plates  in  minia- 
ture, were,  when  they  fell  into  disuse  (and  before 
collectors  of  old  china  and  old  earthenware  began 
to  take  an  interest  in  them),  given  to  children  to 
play  with,  thus  meeting  the  general  destruction  to 
which  nearly  all  dolls'  dishes  of  all  periods  suc- 
cumb. This  seems  the  plausible  theory  for  account- 
ing for  the  scarcity  of  the  cup-plate.  Nevertheless, 
despite  its  rarity,  the  collector  need  not  be  discour- 
aged. In  all  parts  of  the  country  where  settlement 
has  been  early  the  collector  of  old  china  still  stands 
a  good  chance  of  picking  up  cup-plates  of  all  sorts. 
Even  the  glass  ones  are  yet  to  be  found. 

True  it  is  that  any  exceptionally  fine  cup-plates  of- 
fered in  the  antique  shops  generally  bring  high  prices. 
For  instance,  a  four-inch  cup-plate  brought  twenty- 
three  dollars  at  auction  a  year  ago,  and  another 
fetched  thirty-six  dollars  at  private  sale.  Certain 
other  cup-plates  which  have  come  to  the  author's 
attention  have  been  held  for  prices  running  from 
fourteen  to  forty-five  dollars  apiece.  Although  the 
collector  of  moderate  means  may  not  expect  to  in- 
dulge in  many  purchases,  he  is  apt  to  run  across 

[37] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

fine  pieces  at  bargain  prices  that  will  send  his  spirits 
to  the  level  of  true  elation.  First  of  all,  however, 
he  must  study  the  subject  and  learn  to  know  a  cup- 
plate  when  he  sees  one,  for  the  successful  collector 
is  never  a  hunter  of  Snarks ! 

Only  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  the  East 
India  Company  considered  the  gift  of  a  couple  of 
pounds  of  tea  a  princely  one  to  make  the  King  of 
England !  Pepys  gives  us  an  inkling  as  to  how  un- 
common a  thing  tea-drinking  was  in  his  time.  How- 
ever, the  use  of  cup-plates  is  a  much  later  one  than 
Pepys's  day;  they  were  not  the  fashion  until  tea- 
drinking  had  become  an  almost  universal  custom. 

The  illustrations  will  give  the  reader  an  idea  of 
the  variety  to  be  found  in  cup-plates.  While  the 
pieces  put  to  this  use  are  nearly  of  a  size,  their  di- 
ameters vary  by  a  fraction  of  an  inch  to  an  inch  or 
more. 

One  of  the  best  known  cup-plate  series  is  Hall's 
"Hampshire  Scenery,"  with  borders  of  primroses, 
hepatica,  and  other  flowers  resembling  many  of  the 
Clews  borders.  Their  color  is  rich  blue.  John  Hall 
&  Sons  were  Staffordshire  potters  (1810-1820), 
whose  marks  on  wares  Chaffers  places  in  the  "uncer- 
tain" list.  Then  there  is  a  "Quadrupeds  Series." 
The  mark  on  this  resembles  an  extended  bell,  on 

[38] 


CUP-PLATES 

which  appears  the  name  "i.  hall"  in  capital  let- 
ters, with  the  word  "quadrupeds"  in  crude  capi- 
tal letters  below,  on  a  curtain-like  extension  with 
inverted  flutings.  But  far  more  beautiful  than 
either  of  these  sets,  and  more  interesting  to  the  Amer- 
ican collector,  are  those  of  a  series  in  rich  blue,  one 
of  which  shows  the  Park  Square  Theatre,  Boston, 
and  bears  the  characteristic  oak-leaf  and  acorn  bor- 
der of  R.  Stevenson  and  Williams.  All  the  designs 
of  Ralph  Stevenson  are  eagerly  sought  by  collectors 
of  old  china.  The  Stevenson  works  were  in  Co- 
bridge,  Staffordshire,  but  all  record  of  both  potter 
and  pottery  seems  to  have  disappeared.  Another 
cup-plate  series  contains  a  view  of  the  first  United 
States  Mint,  Philadelphia,  and  has  the  character- 
istic border — of  scrolls,  eagles,  and  flowers — of 
Joseph  Stubbs.  This  potter  made  comparatively 
few  pieces  for  the  American  market.  From  1 790  to 
1830  he  was  owner  of  the  Dale  Hall  Works  at  Bur- 
slem.  His  cup-plates  are  among  the  most  desired 
objects  of  the  sort. 

Many  cup-plates  bore  mottoes  and  verses  such  as 
those  of  the  Liverpool  type,  a  Romance  Series,  for 
instance,  containing  one  known  as  "Returning 
Hopes,"  with  the  ardent  verse  appearing  thereon  as 
follows : 

[39] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

When  seamen  to  their  homes  return, 
And  meet  their  wives  or  sweethearts  dear, 
Each  loving  lass  with  rapture  burns, 
To  find  her  long-lost  lover  near. 

These  Liverpool  cup-plates,  by  reason  of  their  pic- 
torial nature,  have  always  been  popular  with  col- 
lectors, hence  the  scarcity  of  them  in  antique  and 
curio  shops.  Private  collectors,  too,  seem  loath  to 
part  with  specimens  of  such  printed  wares.  The 
glass  cup-plates  in  native  American  manufacture  are 
in  no  sense  comparable  esthetically  with  the  cup- 
plates  of  porcelain  and  pottery  of  foreign  fabrique. 
Still  they  are  interesting  historically.  The  majority 
of  the  glass  cup-plates  were  crystalline  glass,  though 
some  were  colored — blue,  green,  yellow,  brown,  am- 
ber, rose,  purple,  etc.  There  were  many  glass  fac- 
tories in  America  in  colonial  days  as  well  as  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  and  American  households  were 
well  supplied  by  them  with  cup-plates,  although  in 
design  these  were,  more  often  than  not,  of  compara- 
tively little  beauty. 

Among  the  patterned  cup-plate  wares  the  collector 
will  find,  many  varieties  of  the  hundreds  of  varieties 
of  the  "Willow"  pattern  may  with  reasonable  cer- 
tainty be  traced  to  their  various  potters;  but  this  is 
a  special  study  in  itself,  and  one  entailing  the  sur- 

[40] 


Courtesy   of  Mary  H.  Northend  and  Mr.    William  A.   Cooper 

Cup-Plates 

Landscape,   Wild   Rose  Border  Landscape,   Falls   of   Killarney 

Pressed   Glass  Cup-Plate 

Portrait  of  Henry  Clay 

Floral  Pattern  Hyena  Design 


Courtesy  of  Mr.  Charles  Allen  Munn 

Early  Printed  Cottons 
Allegory  of   Franklin,  and  Apotheosis  of   Washington 


CUE-PLATES 

mounting  of  many  difficulties.  The  amateur  need 
not  concern  himself  with  the  matter  completely  in 
order  to  enjoy  the  few  examples  that  may  chance  to 
discover  themselves  to  him. 

The  lovely  dark-blue  Davenport  ware,  with  de- 
signs in  the  Chinese  style,  are  worth  looking  for. 
Ware  such  as  this  is  familiar  to  every  collector  and 
is  coming  to  be  appreciated  more  generally  than  for- 
merly. From  even  a  small  collection  of  cup-plates 
much  pleasure  may  be  derived,  and  the  collector  need 
not  feel  that  it  is  hopeless  to  start  getting  together  ex- 
amples of  worth.  If  things  are  being  picked  up 
here  and  there  on  the  one  hand,  it  is  true  that,  on  the 
other,  examples  of  cup-plates  fully  worth  while  arc 
coming  to  the  market  as  well  as  leaving  it. 


[41] 


CHAPTER  VI 

CHINTZ 

CHINTZ  has  been  called  the  tapisserie  d'A  u- 
husson  of  the  cottage  home.  Its  place 
in  the  affections  of  the  collector  of  antiques 
and  curios  has  long  been  secure.  For  fully  fifty 
years  and  more  lovers  of  household  ancientry  have 
gathered  to  their  appreciation  bits  of  old  printed 
fabrics.  Originally  the  word  "chintz"  was  applied 
to  the  printed  cotton  fabric  from  India,  each  piece 
being  called  in  early  days  a  chint^  a  name  which 
was  derived  from  the  Hindu  cint^  Bengal  cit^  and 
Sanscrit  chitra^  meaning  spotted  or  variegated.  Af- 
terward it  came  to  be  applied  to  the  glazed  printed 
calicoes  of  European  and  American  manufacture, 
gaily  patterned  with  flowers  and  birds  and  figures  in 
diverse  colors  on  a  white  ground.  Its  calendered 
dust-shedding  surface  made  the  material  a  great 
favorite  with  careful  housewives.  Cretonne,  the 
French  substitute  for  chintz,  a  heavier  material,  was 
not  introduced  until  somewhere  around  the  year 
i860. 


CHINTZ 

The  old-time  chintzes  are  not  so  easily  picked  up 
nowadays.  However,  there  are  still  excellent 
chances  of  occasional  "finds,"  even  in  antique- 
combed  America,  where,  happily,  collecting  has  come 
to  be  one  of  our  chief  pastimes.  I  know  one  collec- 
tor who  has  been  so  fortunate  as  to  obtain  many 
quaint  specimens  of  old  printed  fabrics  at  small  cost, 
from  an  upholsterer  in  his  own  town.  From  time  to 
time  chairs  and  sofas  were  brought  to  the  upholsterer 
to  be  re-covered.  Often  these  had  several  layers  of 
material  under  the  outer  one,  and  below  those  of 
later  days  he  would  find,  now  and  then,  coverings 
•of  old  printed  cotton  fabrics.  Among  these  were  a 
lovely  spray-pattern  chintz  of  the  Queen  Anne  period 
and  a  hand-print  of  pastoral  design  by  one  R.  Jones, 
manufacturer  of  Old  Ford,  London,  who  produced 
patterned  chintzes  about  the  year  1760.  Many  of 
the  new  printed  cotton  fabrics  have  borrowed  their 
patterns  from  these  interesting  textile  ancestors, 
though  nowadays,  in  the  case  of  monochrome  and 
duochrome  prints,  the  color  effects  are  somewhat 
richer  than  those  that  obtained  in  the  printed  fab- 
rics of  the  eighteenth  century,  with  their  cold  cho- 
colate browns,  bottle-greens,  and  ox-blood  reds. 
For  the  collector  there  will  naturally  be  an  inimit- 
able charm  about  the  original  pieces,  not  to  mention 

[43] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

their  historic  interest,  while  old  multicolored 
chintzes  cannot  be  surpassed  in  loveliness. 

Chintz  attained  a  beauty  and  a  distinction  of  its 
own  when  it  attracted  the  fancy  of  the  fashionables 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  To  maintain  its  favor, 
it  did  not  rest  content  with  being  imitative  but  de- 
veloped its  own  resources  with  a  consequent  rich- 
ness that  marks  its  place  among  decorative  fabrics 
of  the  early  days. 

A  sixteenth-century  Portuguese  writer,  by  name 
Odoardo  Barbosa,  gives  us  an  interesting  early  refer- 
ence to  printed  fabrics:  "Great  quantities  of  cotton 
cloths,  admirably  painted,  are  held  in  highest  estima- 
tion." But  even  some  two  hundred  years  before  his 
time  the  narrators  of  the  romance  of  commerce  were 
celebrating  the  chintzes  of  the  Coromandel  India 
coast.  Doubtless  these  printed  fabrics  of  the  earlier 
centuries  attained  an  intricacy  and  beauty  that  were 
long  denied  the  European  printed  textiles  which  they 
inspired.  Early  examples  of  the  latter  are  in  no 
way  comparable,  artistically  or  technically,  with  con- 
temporary India  prints.  Even  to-day  it  would  be 
difficult  to  improve  esthetically  on  the  beautiful 
printed  stuffs  that  come  to  us  from  the  countries  of 
the  Orient. 

We  do  not  know  with  certainty  the  circumstances 

[44] 


CHINTZ 

attending  the  introduction  into  Europe  of  the  manu- 
facture of  printed  fabrics.  Long  before  English 
weavers  had  undertaken  the  industry,  the  printing  of 
fabrics  flourished  on  the  Continent.  The  sixteenth 
century  references  to  printed  cottons  in  England  are 
so  few  and  so  vague  that  we  are  virtually  without 
knowledge  of  the  earliest  manufactories  of  these  fab- 
rics. We  do  know,  however,  that  veritable  legions 
of  skilled  craftsmen  in  the  textile  arts  settled  in  the 
British  Isles  during  the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  It  is  to  them,  probably,  that  the  art  owes 
its  introduction  there. 

The  Print  Room  of  the  British  Museum  exhibits 
a  quaint  old  trade  card — itself  the  impression  of  a 
wood-block  such  as  the  cloth-printers  used — which 
bears  the  representation  of  a  cotton-printer  at  work. 
In  the  costume  of  his  time — the  reign  of  James  II — 
he  stands  before  a  long,  broad  Jacobean  table, 
lengthwise  of  which  lies  a  piece  of  cloth,  one  third 
showing  the  pattern  which  the  printer  has  impressed 
on  it.  Behind  the  left  end  of  the  table  is  set  a 
Jacobean  stool  on  which  rests  a  circular  basin  con- 
taining the  color,  which  a  boy  is  waiting  to  apply  to 
the  wood-block  for  printing.  The  master  printer  is 
in  the  act  of  impressing  a  section  of  the  pattern  on 
the  white  cloth  by  means  of  the  wood-block,  which 

[45] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

he  is  hammering  with  a  wooden  mallet.  The  text 
(in  script  of  the  period)  reads,  ''Jacob  Stamps  living 
at  ye  sighn  of  the  Callicoes  Lineings  Silkes  Stuffs 
New  or  Quid  at  Reasonable  Rates T  This  old  mode 
of  block-printing  obtained  for  fully  two  hundred 
years  until  the  inventive  genius  of  the  nineteenth 
century  joined  hands  with  commerce,  to  the  craft's 
almost  complete  discouragement.  However,  a  re- 
vival of  interest  in  the  old  arts  was  inspired  by  such 
enthusiasts  as  William  Morris.  The  hand-printed 
fabrics  have  been  restored  to  favor,  and  to-day  they 
again  play  an  important  part  in  the  decoration  of 
the  modern  home. 

Richmond,  Bow,  and  Old  Ford,  London,  became 
the  earliest  centers  for  printed  chintzes  in  England. 
The  few  extant  specimens  of  seventeenth-century 
chintz  show  us  that  the  early  printed  cottons  were 
crude  enough.  At  first  more  than  one  color  was  not 
attempted.  The  next  step  appears  to  have  been  to 
add  to  the  monochrome  effect  by  applying  washes 
of  dye,  either  freehand  or  stencil  application,  to 
the  outline  pattern.  This  was  done  by  brushing  the 
color  on  as  required,  a  process  slow,  laborious,  and 
fraught  with  uncertainties.  An  examination  of 
these  early  pieces,  treasures  though  they  are  from  an 
antiquarian  point  of  view,  reveals  a  smudgy  appear- 

[46] 


CHINTZ 

ance  resulting  from  the  thickness  of  the  dye-inks  with 
which  the  patterns  were  printed.  The  early  ma- 
terials were  very  coarse  canvas-like  cloths. 

With  the  advent  of  the  eighteenth  century  the 
cloth  for  receiving  the  printed  patterns  was  much 
improved,  and  it  was  not  long  before  finely  woven 
textures  supplanted  the  cruder  ones.  This  greatly 
facilitated  the  development  of  textile  color-prints, 
and  the  Queen  Anne  chintzes  were  in  consequence 
infinitely  superior  to  those  of  the  Charles  II,  James 
II,  or  William  and  Mary  reigns.  So  popular  did 
these  improved  patterned  fabrics  become  that  the 
chintz  industry  not  only  rivaled  that  of  the  silk- 
weavers  but  for  a  time  threatened  to  drive  the  latter 
out  of  business.  Indeed,  so  bitter  became  the  feel- 
ing on  the  subject,  between  the  two  crafts,  that  riots 
resulted  and  an  appeal  was  made  to  Parliament,  by 
the  silk-manufacturers  of  Spitalfields,  for  protection. 
History  records  that  the  silk-workers  were  so  enraged 
because  Westminster  did  not  immediately  forbid  the 
wearing  of  chintz  that  the  delegation  which  had  car- 
ried the  petition  to  London  gave  vent  to  its  wrath 
by  tearing  off  all  chintz  gowns  whose  wearers  were 
encountered  on  the  homeward  journey.  Finally,  in 
1736,  Parliament  passed  an  act  prohibiting  printed 
cottons  and  linens,  an  act  which  was  soon  repealed 

[47] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

and  followed  by  an  increased  vogue  in  chintz.  In 
France  as  well  it  was  at  one  time  considered  ex- 
pedient to  forbid  the  manufacture  of  printed  tex- 
tiles; the  restriction  extended  until  1759. 

Authorities  seem  to  be  agreed  in  considering  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  as  the  golden  age 
of  old-time  printed  chintzes.  Collectors  eagerly 
seek  specimens  of  this  period,  though  they  are  all  too 
rare  to  encourage  hope  in  this  direction  except  for 
occasional  finds.  It  was  during  the  years  around 
1760  that  multicolored  patterns  were  so  beautifully 
and  satisfactorily  wrought  with  superimposed  wood- 
block impressions.  Chippendale  furniture  of  the 
time  naturally  led  to  the  popularity  of  Chinese 
motifs  in  design,  and  lovely  indeed  these  were.  The 
intertwining  flower  sprays  that  marked  the  printed 
fabrics  of  Queen  Anne's  day  now  gave  way  to  motifs 
in  separated  positions.  The  famille  verte^  famille 
rose^  and  famille  noire  porcelains  of  China  furnished 
many  a  motif  for  the  chintz  designers  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  In  the  Chippendale  period  buff 
grounds  were  introduced,  whereas  in  the  earlier 
chintzes  the  grounds  had  been  white  or  untinted. 

The  third  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century  wit- 
nessed an  innovation  in  the  manufacture  of  printed 
fabrics.     Various  mechanical  devices  were  perfected 

[48] 


CHINTZ 

and  led  to  an  enormous  increase  in  chintz  manufac- 
ture. Cotton-printing  was  taken  up  in  the  northern 
counties  and  soon  the  trade  center  shifted  thence 
from  London,  its  old  cradle-town.  Engraved  cop- 
perplates and  roller-printing  came  into  use.  Still, 
as  has  already  been  said,  hand-printing  was  destined 
to  survive. 

The  collector  of  these  various  printed  cottons  will 
find  the  historical  group  especially  interesting. 
Take  for  instance,  the  "Apotheosis  of  Washington" 
or  the  ''Allegory  of  Washington  and  Franklin"  sub- 
jects. In  both,  the  figures  of  Washington  were 
taken  from  the  famous  Trumbull  portrait.  In  the 
"Apotheosis"  chintz  the  medallions  containing  por- 
traits of  thirteen  famous  personages  of  early  Amer- 
ican history  are  after  engravings  by  Du  Simitiere. 
"William  Penn's  Treaty  with  the  Indians"  forms  the 
subject  of  another  patterned  chintz  of  especial  in- 
terest to  American  collectors.  Then  there  are  the 
later  political  subjects  which  the  nineteenth  century's 
early  history  inspired.  The  printed  kerchiefs  also 
came  within  the  province  of  the  collector  of  printed 
cottons.  Many  of  these  kerchiefs  are  especially  well 
adapted  for  framing.  Such  as  the  "Lord  Thomas 
and  Fair  Eleanor"  kerchief  and  the  one  bearing  the 
title  of  "The  Token  or  Sailor's  Pledge  of  Love." 

[49] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

Some  of  these  old  kerchiefs  and  also  many  examples 
of  printed  chintzes  of  historic  interest  have  found 
their  way  into  American  public  collections. 


[50] 


CHAPTER  VII 

PEWTER 

THERE  are  many  persons — some  of  them 
collectors  of  other  antiques  and  curios — who 
ask  what  the  fascination  of  old  pewter  can 
be,  frankly  declaring  that  to  them  it  has  no  attrac- 
tion. Perhaps  to  some  the  mention  of  pewter  sug- 
gests battered  up,  dingy,  leaden-hued  objects  of 
metal,  more  suitable  for  bullets  than  suited  to  buf- 
fets. Again,  there  are  those  who,  unacquainted 
with  pewter  lore,  do  not  guess  the  wealth  of  his- 
torical interest  that  invests  the  subject. 

Relics  of  any  age  that  are  so  damaged  as  no  longer 
to  command  respectful  attention  have  no  real  excuse 
for  perpetuation  unless  some  highly  important  his- 
toric association  attaches  to  them,  for  surely  mere 
age  or  antiquity  is  not  a  raison  d'etre  with  the 
sensible.  Pewter  in  a  state  of  dilapidation  is  no 
exception  to  the  rule  governing  the  forming  of  any 
collection  of  quality,  and  no  matter  what  its  ante- 
cedents, it  should  present  good  form  to  be  worthy  a 
place  in  the  worth-while  collection,  if  it  is  to  be  re- 

[51] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

garded  with  other  than  the  sentiment  bestowed  upon 
a  chipping  from  the  Great  Pyramid  or  a  bottle  of 
dust  from  Pompeii. 

But  truly  fine  pewter  has  attributes  to  justify  its 
collecting.  In  the  first  place,  its  decorative  quality 
commends  it  to  notice.  Here,  however,  one  must 
remember  that  an  esthetic  taste  will  recognize  this, 
where  one  to  which  the  artistic  does  not  appeal  will 
overlook  it.  Secondly,  the  story  of  old  pewter,  as 
recorded  by  Welch  Masse  and  other  authorities  on 
the  subject,  authorities  to  whom  the  collector-student 
is  bound  to  be  indebted  for  much  information,  is  one 
that  lends  entertainment  to  the  pursuit  of  the  hobby. 

A  few  years  ago  a  rage  for  old  pewter  swept  over 
England  and  America,  following  a  notable  exhibi- 
tion— the  first  of  its  sort — ^held  at  Clifford's  Inn, 
London.  This  was  in  1904.  To  be  truthful  one 
must  record  the  "slump"  that  followed  a  few  years 
later.  But  the  true  collector  who  had  taken  up  with 
pewter  remained  loyal  and  enthusiastic,  and  with  the 
appearance  of  a  number  of  exhaustive  and  authori- 
tative works  on  the  history  of  pewter  in  America  and 
in  Great  Britain,  there  has  been  a  revival  of  interest 
in  the  subject  which  is  bound  to  be  permanent. 

English  pewter  was  much  simpler  than  the  pewter 
made  in  other  parts  of  Europe.     This  latter  often 

[52] 


PEWTER 

attained  to  an  ornateness  from  which,  fortunately, 
the  pewter  of  England  of  the  best  period  is  free. 
The  manufacture  of  pewter  in  England  was 
governed  by  the  strict  rules  of  the  Pewterers'  Com- 
pany, which,  as  early  as  1503,  made  it  compulsory 
for  the  pewterers  of  England  to  mark  their  wares, 
just  as  the  French  pewterers  of  Limoges  had  been 
compelled  to  do  a  century  earlier.  Some  of  the 
early  English  pewter  was  marked  with  the  heraldic 
Tudor  rose  with  crown  above,  although  the  rose- 
and-crown  is  to  be  found  on  Scottish  and  on  some 
Flemish  pieces  also. 

As  for  the  individual  marks  of  the  pewterers, 
these  marks  were  called  touches.  Each  pewterer 
was  compelled  to  have  his  separate  touch,  which  was 
recorded  at  the  Pewterers'  Company  halls  by  im- 
pressions struck  on  sheets  of  lead.  Nearly  all  the 
plates  of  touches  in  London  so  formed  prior  to  1666 
were  destroyed  in  the  Great  Fire,  which  also  con- 
sumed nearly  all  the  records,  although  some  of  the 
audit  books  of  the  company,  dating  from  1415,  were 
saved.  However,  on  the  lead  plates  that  have  sur- 
vived we  find  some  eleven  hundred  pewterers' 
touches  impressed.  The  earlier  touches  were  some- 
what smaller  than  those  of  later  date ;  some  of  them, 
in  fact  were  tiny.     The  mark  X  on  old  English 

[53] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

pewter  was  permitted  on  metal  of  extra  quality,  as 
one  may  learn  from  one  of  the  company's  rules  of 
1697,  which  gives  notice  that  "none  may  strike  the 
letter  X  except  upon  extraordinary  ware,  commonly 
called  hard  metal  ware."  The  various  instances  of 
misdeeds  on  the  part  of  pewterers  who  tried  to  evade 
the  regulations  kept  the  company  busy  for  several 
centuries.  The  very  last  regulation  of  the  Pew- 
terers' Company  concerning  touches  directs  that  "all 
wares  capable  of  a  large  touch  shall  be  touched  with 
a  large  touch  with  the  Christian  name  and  surname 
either  of  the  maker  or  of  the  vendor,  at  full  length 
in  plain  Roman  letters;  and  the  wares  shall  be 
touched  with  the  small  touch."  A  penalty  of  one 
penny  per  pound  was  exacted  from  those  pewterers 
who  neglected  to  observe  this  rule. 

While  all  the  facts  concerning  the  marking  of  old 
pewter  should  be  diligently  studied  by  the  collector, 
as  he  gathers  them  from  this  source  and  from  that, 
and  will  prove  of  great  help,  be  of  interest,  and  lend 
zest  to  collecting,  one  must  not  forget  that  much  imi- 
tation old  pewter  has  been  fabricated  with  intent  to 
defraud.  However,  such  "fakes"  (many  of  them 
are  very  attractive  I )  usually  unblushingly  bear  upon 
them  the  ear-marks  of  their  spurious  nature,  and  the 
collector    soon   comes    to    have    command    of    the 

[54] 


PEWTER 

knowledge  necessary  to  detect  such  reproductions. 

The  material  of  old  pewter  is  variously  com- 
pounded. Old  fine  pewter  consisted  of  112  pounds 
of  tin  to  26  pounds  of  copper,  or — in  place  of  the 
cooper — of  brass.  Again,  a  fine,  hard  resonant 
metal  was  made  of  100  parts  of  tin  to  17  of  anti- 
mony. Distinguished  from  the  fine  pewter  was 
common  pewter — or  *'trifle"  pewter,  as  it  was  called. 
This  was  made  of  83  parts  of  tin  to  1 7  parts  of  anti- 
mony, or,  with  slight  variations,  of  82  parts  of  tin 
to  18  parts  of  antimony.  These  various  alloys  are 
susceptible  of  a  high  polish  and  of  retaining  it  well 
in  ordinary  circumstances  some  time.  This  pewter, 
too,  has  a  good  measure  of  hardness  and  possesses 
durability. 

Britannia  metal  must  not  be  confused,  as  often  it 
is,  with  the  real  pewter.  It  was  a  late  eighteenth- 
century  invention  of  tin,  antimony,  copper,  and  zinc, 
which  lent  itself  to  fashioning  on  the  lathe  (a  process 
called  "spinning"),  having  in  this  respect  a  decided 
advantage  over  the  less  easily  worked  pewter. 
Naturally  it  did  not  take  long  for  the  new  Britannia 
metal  to  supersede  pewter  when  it  was  discovered 
that  Britannia  metal  could  be  electroplated. 

However,  the  general  use  to  which  pottery  and 
porcelain,  tinware  and  enamel  attained  had  come  to 

[55] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

have  much,  too,  to  do  with  banishing  pewter  from 
general  use,  though  it  remained  longer  in  favor  in 
Scotland  than  in  England.  "A  whole  garnish  of 
peutre,"  such  as  a  lady  of  1487  bequeathed  to  one  of 
her  heirs,  no  longer  came  to  be  deemed  fashionable. 
The  master  pewterers  suffered  and,  as  time  went  on, 
found  themselves  forced  out  of  their  trade. 

With  the  waning  of  the  popularity  of  pewter,  vast 
quantities  of  it  were  melted  up  for  solder  and  for 
other  purposes,  which  accounts  for  the  scarcity  of 
really  fine  old  pieces.  Indeed,  such  articles  as  pew- 
ter spoons  are  exceptionally  rare;  not,  as  some  sup- 
pose, because  they  were  so  small,  but  because  they 
were  especially  serviceable  to  the  traveling  tinkers, 
who  could  convert  them  into  solder.  The  English 
pewter  spoon  was  seldom  a  small  affair,  if  it  ever 
descended  in  scale  to  the  size  of  a  dessert  spoon.  In 
passing  it  is  well  to  call  the  collector's  attention  to 
the  fact  that  pewter  spoons  are  imitated  and  often 
placed  before  buyers  as  antiques.  One  needs 
especially  to  familiarize  himself  with  the  shapes  of 
the  bowls  and  of  the  handles  of  the  English  ones,  and 
with  other  minutia^  in  order  to  determine  intelli- 
gently the  authenticity  of  a  piece  of  pewter  of  this 
sort.  Other  objects  are  much  more  common,  and  ten 
genuine  English  pewter  spoons  would  form  a  goodly 

[56] 


PEWTER 

collection,     considering    their    exceptional     rarity. 

The  London  pewterers  guarded  their  trade  secrets 
jealously.  They  permitted  no  outsiders  to  loiter  and 
watch  them  at  work.  As  the  various  molds  for 
pewter  objects  were  made  at  great  expense,  it  was 
the  custom  for  the  guilds  of  the  Pewterers'  Company 
to  own  these  and  to  let  them  out.  This  accounts  for 
the  various  standard  shapes  of  articles,  made  by  quite 
different  pewterers.  Lists  of  such  molds,  dating  as 
far  back  as  1425,  have  survived  the  vicissitudes  of 
time  and  throw  much  interesting  light  on  the  sub- 
ject. Let  the  pewter-collector  remember  that  pew- 
ter objects  appear  to  have  come  into  vogue  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  silver,  and  that  pieces  of  old  pewter 
usually  follow  in  form  the  shapes  of  the  contempor- 
ary silver  objects  of  like  use.  Indeed,  a  study  of  old 
English  silver  will  prove  of  great  help  to  the  pewter- 
collector  in  solving  problems  of  chronology.  One 
may  not  attempt  to  collect  a  whole  garnish  of  pewter 
of  a  single  period — a  complete  garnish  consisting  of 
twelve  platters,  twelve  dishes,  and  twelve  saucers — 
but  it  is  quite  possible,  without  an  appalling  outlay. 
On  the  other  hand,  unless  it  is  a  "find,"  one  may  have 
to  pay  forty  or  fifty  dollars  for  a  fine  and  authentic 
early  English  pewter  spoon. 

Whatever  one  collects  in  the  way  of  old  pewter  of 

[57] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

any  period  and  of  any  country,  it  should  be  dis- 
played by  itself  and  not  mixed  with  silver,  glass, 
and  other  objects.  As  to  what  dealers  sometimes 
call  "silver  pewter,"  let  not  the  unwary  collector  sup- 
pose that  it  is  more  than  pewter  of  a  fine  quality  (if 
the  object  proves  to  be  that!).  Silver  cannot  enter 
into  the  composition  of  true  pewter,  as  it  takes  950° 
C.  to  melt  it,  while  the  tin,  melting  at  230°  C,  would 
volatilize  too  greatly  to  combine  with  the  precious 
metal  before  the  silver  even  reached  the  melting- 
point.  Perhaps  because  the  finest  pewter  takes  a 
silver-like  polish  it  was  originally  called  "silver  pew- 
ter," without  intent  to  mislead. 

Another  point  worth  remembering  is  that,  al- 
though all  sorts  of  objects  have  been  fashioned  of 
pewter — even  a  copy  of  the  Portland  Vase  has  been 
fashioned  in  this  metal — the  collector  will  find  very 
few  old  English  pewter  tea-pots.  Fully  eighty-five 
per  cent,  of  the  tea-pots  passing  as  pewter  are,  I 
should  say,  either  Britannia  or  Ashberry  metal. 
Very  early  ecclesiastical  pieces  of  English  make  are 
rare,  too.  The  Council  of  Westminster  forbade 
the  fashioning  of  church  vessels  of  pewter,  as  it 
was  thought  not  sufficently  precious  to  be  dedi- 
cated to  such  use.  But  in  poorer  communities 
exceptions  must  have  been  made,  as  we  know  of 

[58] 


PEWTER 

Its  use  in  churches  in  1 194.  The  Council  of  Nimes 
'(1252)  and  the  Council  of  Albi  (1254)  in  France 
had  later  to  take  up  a  like  matter,  then  permitting 
pewter  in  the  manufacture  of  objects  for  church  use 
under  certain  restrictions. 

Not  only  in  early  times  (by  the  year  1290  Ed- 
ward I  had  accumulated  three  hundred  pieces  of  pew- 
ter of  fine  quality)  but  as  late  at  1820,  when  George 
IV  had  pewter  placed  upon  the  table  at  the  corona- 
tion feast,  pewter  has  enjoyed  the  protection  of  roy- 
alty, which  fact  adds  not  a  little  to  its  historic  inter- 
est. But  let  the  collector  beware  of  certain  pewter 
plates  with  arms,  portraits,  etc.,  stamped  in  high  re- 
lief, which  are  now  and  then  to  be  met  with,  marked 
with  a  crowned  rose  and  N.  D.  in  the  upper  part  of 
the  crown,  as  well  as  a  pellet  in  the  center  of  each 
petal  (except  in  the  center  of  the  upper  one,  where 
there  is  a  six-pointed  mullet).  And  let  him  be- 
ware of  the  marked  pieces  distinguished  by  a  St. 
George  or  by  a  St.  Michael  and  a  dragon  in  a  beaded 
circle  and  the  letters  A.  I.  C,  as  these  are  not  old 
pieces  but  appear  to  have  been  fabricated  as  "orna- 
mental" antiques. 

Of  course  there  are  many  other  tricks  resorted  to 
by  the  unscrupulous,  but  the  real  collector,  generally 
speaking,  happily  possesses  that  instinct  which  en- 

[59] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

ables  him  to  learn  his  lessons  quickly  and  inexpen- 
sively; and  there  are  plenty  of  reputable  antique 
shops  wherein  genuine  things  are  to  be  found.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  the  writer  has  found  that  even 
where  certain  dealers  have  offered  spurious  objects 
as  genuine,  they  have  done  so  through  ignorance 
rather  than  through  cupidity.  A  dealer  will  usually 
be  only  too  glad  to  have  a  collector  who  knows 
point  to  him  mistakes  in  attribution.  Most  of  the 
small  shops  are  run  by  men  who  have  little  time  for 
study,  and  who  are  far  more  likely  to  be  imposed 
upon  themselves  than  to  attempt  to  impose  upon 
their  customers.  After  all,  the  dealer  could  not  live 
without  customers,  and  the  only  safe  way  to  hold 
any  customer  is  to  treat  him  honestly. 

Early  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  lathe  began 
to  be  developed,  so  any  specimens  of  pewter  disclos- 
ing lathe  marks  would  suggest  a  date  subsequent  to 
that  period.  The  pewter  formed  by  the  "spinning" 
process  is  the  most  modern  of  all.  The  pewter  col- 
lector should  be  careful  how  he  polishes  his  pewter, 
as  this  ware  should  never  be  subjected  to  rubbing 
with  brick-dust  and  like  vigorous  usage. 


[60] 


^. ^  I 


»^ 


"srr "aiE — -^ —      -J-.       am  Jill     " :r— —         "=      r— :=rf 


\     I 


CHAPTER  VIII 

SAMPLERS 

BEFORE  the  age  of  machine-made  things, 
and  of  attire  much  more  conventional  than 
in  many  of  the  earlier  periods,  there  was, 
of  course,  great  need  of  skilled  needlewomen,  not 
only  professionally  but  at  home  as  well,  for  it  was 
in  the  home  that  most  of  the  "finery"  of  our 
forefathers  originated.  Stubbes's  "Anatomy  of 
Abuses,"  which  appeared  in  1583,  tells  of  the  rai- 
ment of  the  men  of  the  author's  time  who  were 
"decked  out  in  the  fineries  even  to  their  shirts,  which 
are  wrought  with  needlework  of  silks,"  etc.  The 
good  Stubbes  also  complains  that  it  was  difficult  to 
tell  who  were  gentlefolk,  because  all  men  of  that 
time  affected  silks,  velvets,  "taffeties,"  and  the  like, 
regardless  of  station.  Thus  we  may  see  how  impor- 
tant it  was  that  the  little  misses  of  the  days  of  long 
ago  should  be  taught  stitchery  at  the  early  age  of 
nine  or  ten  years. 

Samplers  are  among  the  most  intimate  of  collect- 
able old  things. 

[61] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

.  .  .  Bookless  and  pictureless 
Save  the  inevitable  sampler  hung 
Over  the  fireplace. 

How  patiently  the  little  fingers  toiled  over  these 
records  of  their  wonderful  (even  if  enforced)  appli- 
cation! Truly,  samplers  are  the  needle-craft  prim- 
ers of  yesterday.  We  have  only  to  recall  an  old 
English  play,  "Gammer  Gurton's  Needle,"  probably 
the  very  first  of  the  earlier  English  folk  comedies,  to 
understand  the  great  importance  attached  to  the 
needle.  This  play,  written  about  1560  (and  at- 
tributed to  John  Still,  Bishop  of  Wells,  and  for- 
merly Master  of  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge, 
where  it  was  first  produced)  shows  how,  during  the 
period  of  its  conception,  a  steel  needle  was  treasured 
as  few  family  treasures  of  to-day,  and  so  when  Gam- 
mer Gurton  lost  hers — the  only  one  she  possessed — 
the  misfortune  took  on  the  importance  of  genuine 
calamity.  As  collectors  of  samplers  and  writers  on 
the  subject  of  samplers  have  been  baffled  in  trying 
to  discover  why  no  samplers  dated  or  positively 
known  to  have  been  worked  before  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century  are  extant,  this  clue  to  the  prob- 
able reason  which  we  find  in  "Gammer  Gurton's 
Needle"  is  of  interest;  the  fact  is  that  as  needles 
were  so  uncommon  and  such  treasured  possessions 

[62] 


SAMPLERS 

they  were  not  to  be  entrusted  to  tiny  fingers.  La- 
ter, when  invention  turned  its  attention  to  needle- 
making,  needles  became  common  enough.  I  im- 
agine many  a  little  girl  of  the  eighteenth  century 
wished  that  needles  had  never  been  ''born"  ! 

Very  fine  samplers  containing  both  names  and 
dates  prior  to  1800  are  not  to  be  found  at  every 
turn.  Notwithstanding  this,  the  sampler-collector 
need  anticipate  no  discouraging  difficulty  in  getting 
together  examples  for  a  fairly  representative  collec- 
tion. It  is  only  in  comparatively  recent  years  that 
we  have  discovered  the  value  of  old  samplers  as  ex- 
cellent decorative  accessories  on  the  walls  of  a  room 
in  which  old  pieces  of  furniture  are  placed.  Sam- 
plers may  be  mounted  and  framed  for  hanging  on  a 
wall  as  a  picture  might  be,  and  I  know  of  few  ob- 
jects in  the  line  of  antiques  that  seem  so  appropriate 
for  use  in  this  manner  for  adorning  the  walls  of  a 
bedchamber. 

While  it  is  not  always  an  easy  matter  to  assign 
undated  samplers  to  their  exact  periods,  approximate 
dates  may  without  great  trouble  be  determined. 
Naturally,  the  earliest  examples  were  more  utili- 
tarian than  ornamental  in  conception,  more  like  a 
mere  example  of  stitchery  of  various  sorts — a  leaf 
from  the  scrap-book  of  needlework,  as  it  were.     La- 

[63] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

ter,  pattern  and  design  and  pictorial  composition 
were  evolved.  Likewise,  the  earlier  samplers  seem 
to  have  been  longer  and  narrower  in  proportion  than 
later  ones.  Threads  of  gold  and  silver  are  to  be 
found  in  needle-work  of  the  Elizabethan  and  the 
Jacobean  period,  where  we  should  not  look  for  them 
in  the  Georgian.  Again,  there  are  characteristics  of 
pattern  that  clearly  denote  the  embroiderer's  time. 
The  design  of  the  letters  of  the  alphabet  embroid- 
ered on  a  sampler  also  forms  a  clue,  inasmuch  as  it 
shares  in  common  with  contemporary  dated,  printed, 
and  engraved  lettering  the  more  distinctive  period 
characteristics  of  the  latter.  The  earliest  date  of  an 
alphabet  sampler  is,  I  believe,  1643;  of  a  sampler 
with  a  motto,  1651 ;  of  a  sampler  having  a  border^^ 
1726;  of  a  representation  of  a  house,  1763;  of 
numerals,  1655;  of  a  verse,  1696;  1728  has  been  sug- 
gested as  the  approximate  date  of  the  introduction 
of  mustard-colored  canvases  on  which  the  sainplers 
were  worked.  \ 

"Sad  sewers  made  bad  samplers,*'  said  Lord  de 
Tabley  in  "The  Soldier  of  Fortune,"  but  the  wonder 
is  that  the  little  fingers  of  yesterday  should  have  ac- 
quired skill  not  only  in  one  sort  of  embroidery  but 
in  the  varied  stitches  often  seen  in  a  single  sampler 
remarkable  for  its  perfect  and  exquisite  handiwork. 

[64] 


SAMPLERS 

One  is  almost  aghast,  for  instance,  at  the  task  sug- 
gested by  John  Taylor's  ''The  Needles  Excellency," 
where  one  reads : 

Tent-worke,   Raised-workc,   Laid-worke,   Frost-worke,   Net- 

worke, 
Most  curious  purles  or  rare  Italian  Cut-worke, 
Fine  Ferne-stitch,  Finny-stitch,  Hew-stitch  and  China-stitch, 
Brave  Bred-stitch,  Fisher-stitch,  Irsh-stitch  and  Queen-stitch, 
The  Spanish-stitch,  Rosemary-stitch  and  Morose-stitch, 
The  Smarting  Whip-stitch,  Back-stitch  and  the  Cross-stitch. 
All  these  are  good  and  these  we  must  allow. 
And  these  are  everywhere  in  practice  now. 

With  the  infinitude  of  stitches  it  is  not  necessary 
here  to  be  concerned,  although  the  enthusiast  in  sam- 
pler-collecting will  find  the  study  of  stitches  help- 
ful just  as  the  expert  will  find  it  highly  necessary. 
As  there  is  much  confusion  in  the  nomenclature, 
there  will  be  many  stumbling-blocks,  but  the  pur- 
suit will  be  worth  while.  The  earliest  seventeenth- 
century  samplers  of  lace-like  appearance  were  worked 
in  cut-and-drawn  embroidery,  with  various  addi- 
tional lace  stitches.  Then  there  was  the  eyelet- 
stitch,  damask-stitch,  the  backstitch  (these  three  were 
used  for  alphabets),  darning-stitches,  tent-stitches, 
and  tapestry-stitch  (unusual)  and  so  on. 

The  foundation  of  early  samplers  was  the  hand- 
woven  linen,  either  unbleached  or  bleached.     Some- 

[65] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

times  this  was  almost  as  coarse  as  canvas  and  again 
of  closely  woven  texture.  Linen  thread  or  silk 
(somewhat  loosely  twisted)  was  employed  for  the 
stitchery.  The  harsh  yellow  linen  of  early  eight- 
eenth-century samplers  came  into  vogue  toward  the 
end  of  the  first  quarter  of  the  century,  but  was  soon 
discarded.  Unfortunately,  tannery  cloth  was  much 
in  vogue  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  This 
unattractive  material  seemed  especially  devised  to 
satiate  the  appetites  of  moths!  Most  of  the  tan- 
nery-cloth samplers  are  worked  in  silk.  The  mus- 
lin-like tiffany  cloth  was  occasionally  used  before 
1800  for  small  and  fine  samplers.  Later  the  coarse 
linens  came  into  fashion.  The  crudely  dyed  threads 
marked  the  decline  of  the  sampler  from  about  1800. 
Then  cotton  canvas  and  Berlin  wool  completed  the 
fall  of  this  one  of  the  gentlest  arts. 

The  early  American  samplers  had,  of  course,  their 
ancestry  and  inspiration  in  English  samplers,  with 
which  I  think  they  vie  in  interest  and  attractiveness. 
Surely  there  could  be  no  more  delightful  wall  dec- 
oration for  a  colonial  house  than  one  of  the  early 
American  samplers!  These  are  less  commonly 
found  than  English  samplers  and  American  collectors 
naturally  give  them  preference. 

That  the  little  misses  of  olden  times  managed  at 
[66] 


SAMPLERS 

so  tender  an  age  to  produce  such  handiwork  seems 
almpst  amazing.  Little  girls  of  five  and  six  years 
achieved  marvels  in  sampler  stitchery  as  extant  ex- 
amples abundantly  proves. 

Poetry  and  samplers  seem  to  have  been  good 
friends.  In  the  second  scene  of  the  third  act  of 
"Midsummer  Night's  Dream,"  and  in  the  fourth 
scene  of  the  second  act  of  "Titus  Andronicus,"  Shak- 
spere  alludes  to  samplers.  So  does  Milton  in 
"Comus,"  and  Sir  Philip  Sidney  in  "Arcadia."  If 
those  blest  bards  could  but  scan  the  verse  of  some 
of  the  sampler-makers!  Here  is  one  which,  in  its 
way,  is  a  gem  typical  of  task  and  talent : 

Sarah  Bonney  is 

My  Name,  England  is 

My  Nation;  See  How  Good 

My  Parents  is  to  Give 

Me  Education 

There  is  rhyming  for  you!  And  may  we  not  im- 
agine that  beneath  those  sentiments  lurked  a  fine 
humor? 


[67] 


CHAPTER  IX 

WAX    PORTRAITS 

STRANGE  it  seems  that  so  many  fragile  objects 
have  come  down  to  us  from  antiquity  while 
cities  of  stone,  statues  of  marble,  and  monu- 
ments of  bronze  too  often  have  appeared  lost  for- 
ever. On  beholding  a  perfect  glass  vase  whose  his- 
tory dates  back  to  Phoenician  times,  but  which  has 
survived  centuries  of  vicissitudes,  one  cannot  but  re- 
flect upon  the  extraordinary  fortune  of  things  appar- 
ently so  perishable.  In  the  Victoria  and  Albert 
Museum,  South  Kensington,  London,  the  museum  of 
the  Art  Department  of  Carnegie  Institute,  Pitts- 
burgh, and  elsewhere  one  may  find  little  wax  models 
that  have  come  down  through  hundreds  of  years,  and 
one  wonders  that  Time  has  lent  so  kind  a  hand  to 
things  which  were  constructed  of  materials  that  we 
have  regarded  as  being  so  perishable. 

Wax  portraiture  is  one  of  the  arts  of  the  past  so 
little  known  to  many  collectors  that  examples  of  it 
are  not  often  met  with  in  American  collections.  An- 
cient writers  have  given  us  a  hint  of  the  antiquity 

[68] 


WAX  PORTRAITS 

of  wax  portraiture,  not  only  in  round  sculpture,  but 
in  relief.  Moreover,  we  know  that  the  Greek  ar- 
tists in  Egypt  were  adepts  in  painting  portraits  by 
means  of  powdered  colors  applied  with  rush  brushes 
to  slabs  of  cedar-wood  covered  with  wax,  into  which 
coating  the  color  could  easily  be  worked  when  the 
sun's  rays  were  permitted  to  soften  the  wax.  Many 
of  these  ancient  wax  panels  are  extant,  and  they  ap- 
pear very  much  like  paintings  in  oil  colors  upon 
wood. 

We  know  that  Lysistratus,  who  lived  in  the  time 
of  Alexander  the  Great,  executed  small  busts  in  col- 
ored wax,  and  this  is  the  earliest  use  of  the  medium  in 
color  mentioned  by  history.  Works  of  this  sort 
were  forerunners  of  the  later  colored  wax  portraits 
of  the  seventeenth  and  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
with  the  old  custom,  which  Pliny  mentions,  of  hav- 
ing ancestral  portraits  in  the  households  of  the 
Romans  as  connecting  links  in  the  progress  of  the 
art.  Moreover,  the  Romans  were  wont  to  carry  in 
funeral  procession  waxen  portraits  of  the  departed, 
as  a  curious  custom  clinging  to  civilization  as  late 
as  the  seventh  century  in  England.  Indeed,  a  visi- 
tor to  Westminster  Abbey  may  see  the  old  wax  form 
of  Queen  Elizabeth  gorgeously  attired,  which  was 
carried  in  the  cortege  at  her  burial ! 

[69] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

More  cheerful,  on  the  other  hand,  are  the  remark- 
able wax  portraits  in  relief — some  white  or  mono- 
chrome and  others  colored — which  were  modeled 
("painted"  would  perhaps  be  a  better  word)  by  the 
early  artists  of  the  cinquecento — Leone  Leoni,  An- 
tonio Abondio  in  Italy,  later  by  Guillaume  Dupre 
and  Antoine  Benoit  in  France,  and  then  by  Isaac 
Gosset,  Eley,  George  Mountstephen,  Joachim 
Smith,  S.  Percy,  and  Peter  Ruow  and  others  in 
England. 

How  the  ancients  prepared  their  materials  for 
working  in  wax  is  not  recorded,  but  probably  they 
anticipated  all  of  the  processes  employed  by  the 
medieval  artist  in  such  portraiture,  powdering  the 
color,  mixing  in  oil,  and  adding  it  to  pure  wax  in  the 
state  of  fusion.  To  Pastorino  of  Siena  has  been  ac- 
credited the  honor  of  having  invented  the  particular 
wax  paste  used  by  himself  and  his  successors  in  rep- 
resenting the  hair  and  the  skin. 

In  the  sixteenth  century  the  art  of  wax  portraiture 
was  practised  in  Nuremberg  and  reached  a  high  state 
of  development  under  Casper  Hardy,  prebendary  of 
the  Cologne  cathedral. 

Among  the  most  interesting  wax  portraits  by 
French  artists  are  those  from  the  hand  of  Frangois 
Clouet,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  which  are  among 

[70] 


WAX  PORTRAITS 

the  treasures  of  the  Cluny  Museum,  Paris.  Under 
Louis  XIV  wax  portraiture  attained  so  important  a 
place  in  France  that  we  find  Antoine  Benoit  given 
the  royal  appointment  of  ''Unique  sculpteur  en  cire 
coloree.'" 

No  material  is  more  responsive  to  the  artist's 
touch  than  wax,  immortalizing  as  it  does  his  indi- 
vidual handling  in  a  manner  peculiarly  its  own. 
Perhaps  no  English  portraitist  has  given  evidence 
of  greater  ability  than  did  S.  Percy,  whose  wax  por- 
traits, as  well  as  those  by  Peter  Ruow,  are  prized  by 
collectors.  Artists  in  wax  portraiture  were  not  un- 
known in  America  during  colonial  times.  Among 
the  names  of  early  wax-portrait  artists  in  America 
that  of  Patience  Wright  stands  forth  prominently. 
She  was  born  in  1725,  the  daughter  of  Mr.  Lowell, 
a  Quaker  of  Bordentown,  New  Jersey.  When 
twenty-three  years  of  age  she  married  Joseph  Wright, 
and  some  years  later  was  left  a  widow  with  three 
children.  In  1772  she  went  to  England.  Already 
she  had  become  noted  for  her  excellent  work  in  por- 
traiture. A  bust  of  Thomas  Penn  was  one  of  her 
earliest  works  of  the  London  period  and  the  wax- 
portrait  of  Washington  from  her  hand,  modeled  after 
an  original  from  life  by  her  son,  Joseph  Wright,  is 
now  in  the  possession  of  Dr.  Richard  H.  Harte  of 

[71] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

Philadelphia.  This  is  the  work  which  she  mentions 
in  a  letter  to  Washington  preserved  in  the  Library  of 
Congress : 

You  may  have  my  most  grateful  thanks  for  your  kind 
attention  to  my  son  in  taking  him  into  your  Family  to  en- 
courage his  genii  and  giving  him  the  pleasing  oppourtunity 
of  taking  a  Likeness  that  has  I  sincerely  hope  gave  his 
country  and  your  friends,  Sir,  satisfaction.  I  am  impa- 
tient to  have  a  copy  of  what  he  has  done  that  I  may  have 
the  honour  of  making  a  model  from  it  in  wax  work,  as  it  has 
been  for  some  time  the  wish  and  desire  of  my  heart  to  model 
a  likeness  of  General  Washington. 

To  this  Washington  replied : 

If  the  bust  which  your  son  has  modelled  of  me  should 
reach  your  hands  and  afford  your  genii  any  employment  that 
can  amuse  Mrs.  Wright  it  must  be  an  honour  done  me. 

Wax  portraiture  almost  died  out  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  but  it  is  of  interest  to  note  its  recent  re- 
vival by  Ethel  Frances  Mundy  and  other  skilful 
artists. 

Good  old  Giorgio  Vasari,  the  gossipy  chronicler  of 
the  Old  Masters  to  whom  we  owe  nearly  all  of  our 
knowledge  of  the  lives  of  the  early  Italian  painters, 
wrote  an  interesting  treatise  on  the  technique  of  art 
from  which  the  following  is  quoted,  as  being  of  fur- 
ther interest  to  the  collector  of  wax  portraits : 

[72] 


WAX  PORTRAITS 

In  order  to  show  how  wax  is  modeled  let  us  first  speak 
of  the  working  of  wax  and  not  of  clay.  To  render  it  softer 
a  little  animal  fat  and  turpentine  and  black  pitch  are  put 
into  the  wax,  and  of  these  ingredients  it  is  the  fat  that  makes 
it  more  supple,  the  turpentine  adds  tenacity,  and  the  pitch 
gives  it  the  black  color  and  consistency,  so  that  after  it  has 
been  worked  and  left  to  stand  it  will  become  hard. 

This  was  the  wax  probably  used  for  the  back- 
grounds.    Vasari  continues: 

And  he  who  would  wish  to  make  wax  of  another  color 
may  easily  do  so  by  putting  into  it  red  earth  or  vermilion  or 
red  lead ;  he  will  thus  make  it  yellowish  red  or  some  shade ; 
if  he  add  verdigris,  green,  and  so  on  with  the  other  colors. 
But  well  it  is  to  observe  that  the  colors  should  be  powdered 
and  sifted,  and  in  this  condition  mixed  with  the  wax  after- 
ward and  made  as  soft  as  possible.  The  wax  is  also  made 
white  for  small  things — medals,  portraits,  minute  scenes, 
and  other  objects  in  bas-relief.  All  this  is  accomplished  by 
mixing  white  lead  that  has  already  been  powdered  with  the 
white  wax  as  already  explained.  I  must  not  neglect  to 
mention  that  modern  artists  have  discovered  the  method  of 
working  all  sorts  of  colors  into  the  wax  so  that  in  taking 
portraits  from  life  in  half-relief  they  make  the  flesh  tints, 
the  hair,  the  clothes  and  all  so  lifelike  that  these  present- 
ments appear  to  lack  only  the  power  to  speak. 


[73] 


CHAPTER  X 

HAND-WOVEN    COVERLETS 

THE  collector  who  has  been  fortunate  enough 
to  make  a  pilgrimage  through  the  villages  of 
New  England,  visiting  the  antique  shops  in 
search  of  adornments  to  the  shrines  of  their  hobbies, 
will  recall  the  occasional  hand- woven  coverlet  that 
chanced  to  be  displayed  as  the  background  to  the  en- 
semble of  odds  and  ends.  But  one  finds  fewer  and 
fewer  of  these  old-time  examples  of  handicraft. 
There  have  been  eager  but  quiet  collectors  indus- 
triously seeking  them  out.  Nevertheless  the  collec- 
tor has  always  a  chance  of  coming  upon  an  early 
woven  coverlet,  particularly  in  those  remote  quar- 
ters where  local  auctions  (occasioned  by  momentous 
events  and  not  merely  foregone  conclusions)  still  dis- 
close the  hidden  treasures  of  yesterday  and  bring 
them  within  reach  of  the  moderate  purse. 

From  colonial  times  the  art  of  weaving  coverlet 
by  hand  was  practised  wherever  wool  and  industry 
suggested.  The  overseas  traditions  were  faithfully 
carried  out  by  the  housewives  of  New  England,  and 

[74J 


HAND- WOVEN  COVERLETS 

then  southward.  There  came  to  be  modifications  in 
the  old  weaving  patterns  as  the  ingenuity  of  those 
skilled  in  this  handicraft  developed.  Indeed,  an 
enormous  variety  of  patterns  was  evolved.  Pro- 
portionately few  of  the  very  old  hand-woven  cover- 
lets have  survived — ^precious  they  are  to  the  col- 
lector of  household  antiques ! — but  even  these  show 
remarkable  pattern  variations.  Of  course,  the  time 
came  when  machine- weaving  supplanted  hand- work, 
and  before  long  coverlets  hand-woven  were  of  the 
discarded  arts,  so  far  as  the  New  England  states  were 
concerned.  A  few  years  ago,  however,  the  industry 
of  making  hand- woven  coverlets  was  revived,  for  the 
art  had  in  a  measure,  fortunately,  continued  in  the 
Southern  mountains  of  the  country.  Many  of  the 
old-time  coverlets  were  carefully  copied  and  hun- 
dreds of  new  patterns  also  were  devised.  These  la- 
ter hand-woven  coverlets  are,  many  of  them,  of 
great  beauty  and  intrinsically  worth  having,  even 
when  one  can  also  acquire  the  earlier  specimens,  for 
the  modern  hand-woven  coverlet  is  more  often  than 
not  indicative  of  the  same  artistic  spirit  with  which 
the  colonial  housewife  endowed  her  work. 

Blue-and-white  is  the  usual  combination  in  the 
old  coverlets,  though  many  of  them  introduced  other 
colors,  brown  being  the  most  commonly  used  after 

[75] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

blue.  This  blue  was  home-dyed — with  indigo — and 
time  has  lent  to  many  of  the  old  coverlets  a  coloring 
comparable  to  that  of  the  blues  of  Chinese  porce- 
lains. 

With  the  aptitude  for  determining  the  details  of 
the  fabrics,  of  which  every  woman  seems  intuitively 
to  be  possessed,  the  woman  collector  will  in  all  prob- 
ability be  able  to  distinguish  a  truly  old  coverlet 
from  one  of  modern  fabrication.  In  a  few  instances 
some  unscrupulous  antique-dealer  may  claim  an- 
tiqueness  for  an  obviously  modem  coverlet,  but  the 
discriminating  collector  will  be  comparatively  safe. 

The  collector  will  find  old  coverlets  interesting  as 
hangings,  lounge-covers,  and  portieres,  as  well  as 
when  put  to  their  original  uses.  Fortunate  indeed 
is  one  who  chances  to  acquire  a  signed  and  dated 
example.  Such  a  discovery  leads  the  happy  col- 
lector to  haunt  genealogical  libraries  until  he  has  un- 
earthed the  mystery  of  its  owner's  place  in  history; 
for  in  the  good  old  days  the  weaver  was  probably 
the  owner  as  well. 


[76] 


Courtesy   Metropolitan   Museum  of  Art 

Model   of   an    American    Peg-loom.      Bearing   the   Name   of   W.    D.    Fales   of 
Providence,   Rhode  Island 


Copyright  by  G.   JI.  Buck 

Handwoven    Coverlet   in    Bed-Chamber    of    the   John    Howard    Payne    House, 
Easthampton,    Long   Island,    New   York 


CHAPTER  XI 

CHAIRS 

THE  old-fashioned  idea  that  a  collector  must 
arrange  his  treasures  grouped  in  one  spot  no 
longer  obtains.  I  recall  asking  one  who  had 
returned  from  a  visit  to  a  very  interesting  house  if 
the  host  and  hostess  were  collectors  of  antiques, 
curios,  or  rare  oh  jets  d'art.  "Oh,  no,"  was  the  reply, 
"I  don't  think  so.  They  showed  me  many  beauti- 
ful things,  but  I  did  'nt  see  anything  that  looked  like 
a  collection."  Later  I  learned  that  this  home  con- 
tained one  of  the  most  notable  collections  of  early 
furniture  in  America!  All  these  pieces,  of  course, 
had  been  considered  as  articles  entering  into  the 
adornment  of  this  home  and  not  merely  as  objects 
gathered  clutter-wise  into  the  semblance  of  an  old 
curiosity  shop.  Even  our  museums  are  now  often 
exhibiting  their  furniture  collections  arranged  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  carry  out  a  complete  idea  of  the 
original  intention  of  the  various  pieces,  displaying 
them  in  reconstructed  rooms  or  in  the  counterpart  of 
a  portion  of  a  room. 

[77] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

Probably  no  piece  of  furniture  holds  greater  in- 
terest for  the  specialized  or  even  the  general  col- 
lector than  the  chair.  Its  ancestry  is  venerable,  but 
its  remote  antiquity  need  not  be  dwelt  upon  at 
length  here.  It  is  true  that  in  a  magnificent  Louis 
Quatorze  drawing-room,  perfectly  appointed  and  his- 
torically correct,  the  introduction  of  a  cottage  chair 
of  the  Windsor  type  would  be  as  displeasing  an  ana- 
chronism as  putting  a  wild  thrush  to  neighbor  with 
all  the  parrots  of  an  avairy.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
drawing-room  of  the  average  typical  home  in  good 
taste  the  world  over  might  contain  a  Chippendale 
chair,  a  Carolean  settee,  a  Sheraton  card-table,  a 
Louis  XIII  stool,  and  an  Italian  Renaissance  table, 
and  yet  be  agreeably  pleasing  and  pleasantly  invit- 
ing if  skill,  good  taste,  and  common  sense  had  en- 
tered into  the  character  of  arrangements. 

The  collector  who  wishes  to  devote  some  atten- 
tion to  old  furniture  would  do  well  to  begin  with  old 
chairs.  All  the  old  chairs  (the  good  ones  and  the 
fine  ones)  have  not  been  "collected  up"  in  the  sense 
that  they  are  permanently  retired  from  business. 
When  once  they  get  into  the  museums,  of  course, 
they  stay  there,  but  even  museums  are  not  omnivor- 
ous. The  acquiring  of  supremely  rare  or  unique  ob- 
jects is  by  no  means  the  only  pleasure  to  be  derived 

[78] 


CHAIRS 

from  collecting.  In  fact,  it  is  one  of  its  least  thrill- 
ing forms,  being  measured  more  by  dollars  and  cents 
and  the  commerce  of  things  than  it  is  by  the  mere 
joy  of  acquisition. 

Some  one  has  estimated  that  every  collection  which 
does  not  go  into  a  museum  changes  hands  every 
twenty  years  on  an  average.  It  is  a  fact  that  col- 
lecting in  America  to-day  is  infinitely  more  easy  of 
accomplishment  than  it  was  a  century  ago.  In  New 
York,  for  instance,  the  auction  sales  of  a  single  re- 
cent season  presented  to  the  collector  more  oppor- 
tunities than  could  have  come  his  way  in  six  sea- 
sons years  ago.  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  all 
good  "chances"  have  passed;  they  are,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  just  about  beginning  in  America.  We  are 
told  that  collectors  have  ransacked  farmhouses  and 
old  houses  in  the  East  for  interesting  pieces  of  an- 
tique furniture.  That  is  true,  but  the  process 
means  only  a  change  of  location  and  not  an  elimina- 
tion of  possibilities. 

The  collector  of  old  chairs  can  easily  become 
familiar  with  the  various  forms  of  peculiarities 
of  design  which  mark  the  different  styles  and  pe- 
riods, as  may  be  seen  by  even  a  passing  glance  at  the 
accompanying  illustrations.  Indeed,  the  ear-marks 
that  distinguish  certain  pieces  of  furniture  of  the  his- 

[79] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

toric  periods  and  distinct  styles  from  others  are,  hap- 
pily, so  numerous  that  the  art  of  identification  be- 
comes comparatively  an  easy  one.  Beginners  will, 
to  be  sure,  often  come  across  modem  reproductions 
of  genuine  old  chairs.  Not  all  of  these — in  fact, 
comparatively  few  of  them — were  made  with  in- 
tent to  defraud.  Occasionally  some  unscrupulous 
or  ignorant  person  will  offer  a  modern  piece  as  gen- 
uine, but  your  true  collector  need  hardly  be  de- 
ceived, except  in  rare  instances,  by  attempted  imposi- 
tions. The  form  of  the  master  furniture  designers 
of  yesterday  has  never  been  surpassed.  There  is 
nothing  in  modern  design  more  beautiful  or  so  beau- 
tiful as  many  of  the  old  chairs  of  Chippendale, 
Sheraton,  and  Hepplewhite,  and  likewise  of  the  early 
English  and  the  French  periods.  Realizing  this, 
the  furniture-makers  of  to-day  at  home  and  abroad 
have  sought  to  reproduce  the  best  of  these  antique 
pieces  for  the  service  and  the  benefit  of  the  modern 
home-maker,  obviously  as  undisguised  reproductions. 
The  collector  who  studies  old  chairs  will  glean 
many  a  helpful  hint  from  these  modem  reproduc- 
tions. The  fine  ones  faithfully  carried  out  are  really 
worth  collecting  in  themselves,  as  accessory  to  a  col- 
lection of  other  pieces  which  the  collector  has  been 
fortunate  in  obtaining  in   the  originals.     If  you 

[80] 


Chipp  ndale     Mahogany    Arm-Chaii 
1760-1780 


Shield-Back  Hepplewhite 
Arm-Chair 


Courtesy   Metropolitan   Museum   of  Art 
Louis  XTV  Arm-Chair 


Louis  XV  Arm-Chair 


^ 


Pl^^^^^^ 


Courtesy  Brooklyn  Museum  of  Art 

Three    Rare    Williamite    Glasses.      Two    English    Glass    Rummers    Engraved 

with    Nelson     Subjects,    and    a    smaller    Jacobite    Arms    Rummer.       Centre 

Tumbler   Commemorates   Coronation    of   George   IV   of   England.      Two    18th 

Century   Tumblers 


CHAIRS 

chance  to  come  across  an  old  chair  fine  in  the  lines  of 
its  design,  do  not  give  it  up  as  hopeless  should  you 
notice  that  it  is  disfigured  with  paint,  dowdy,  broken- 
down  upholstery,  and  the  like.  A  good  restorer  of 
old  furniture  will  be  able  to  work  wonders  with  a 
piece  of  the  sort.  I  remember  discovering  an  old 
chair  so  hidden  under  the  disguise  of  paint,  putty, 
and  car-plush  as  to  have  discouraged  any  but  a  dis- 
criminating enthusiasm.  When  this  chair  was 
turned  over  to  a  restorer  he  delivered  it  from  its 
bondage  of  humiliation  and  it  came  forth  an  excel- 
lent and  treasured  genuine  example  of  the  finest  Hep- 
pie  white  style.  The  "stuffing"  had  completely  hid- 
den a  splendid  ostrich-plume  back. 

To  collect  anything  sensibly  requires  an  interest  in 
the  available  data  concerning  it.  One  might  as  well 
collect  buttons  manufactured  in  1920  as  to  pay  no 
attention  to  the  study  of  things  gathered  together 
in  pleasurable  pursuit.  So,  too,  it  is  with  chairs. 
A  chair-collector  looks  beyond  the  mere  utilitarian 
fact  that  each  chair  can  be  sat  upon  with  comfort, 
or  can't  be. 

First  of  all  he  must  acquaint  himself  with  the  va- 
rious periods:  Italian  Renaissance,  Frence  Renais- 
sance, Flemish,  Spanish,  Elizabethan,  Carolean,  and 
Jacobean  (Tudor  to  Stuart),  William  and  Mary, 

[81] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

Queen  Anne,  the  Early  Georgian,  the  French  periods 
of  the  Henris,  the  Louis,  the  Empire,  the  styles  of 
Chippendale,  Adam,  Hepple white,  and  Sheraton, 
and  the  early  American  forms. 

The  collector  will  find  many  excellent  works  in 
English  by  eminent  authorities  on  furniture,  all  of 
which  devote  proper  space  to  the  subject  of  the 
chairs  of  the  particular  period  of  which  they  are 
treating.  There  the  chair  enthusiast  will  learn  that 
walnut  came  to  be  widely  used  in  English  chairs 
after  1650;  that  Hepplewhite  suggested  haircloth  for 
chair  coverings;  that  the  Carolean  crown  is  a  dis- 
tinguishing feature  of  the  Restoration  period;  that 
Queen  Anne  chairs  are  marked  by  simplicity,  their 
beauty  depending  mainly  on  their  fine  lines,  grace- 
ful curves,  delicate  veneering,  and  restraint  where 
inlay  is  used;  that  mahogany  came  into  use  between 
1720  and  1725,  and  not  into  general  use  before 
1730;  that  Chippendale's  best  pieces  were  made  be- 
tween 1730  and  1760;  that  in  all  real  Chippendale 
ball-and-claw  terminations  the  claw  is  carved  to  sug- 
gest vividly  a  gripping  strength,  and  not  as  merely 
resting  passively  on  the  ball  as  in  the  imitations  and 
in  nearly  all  modern  reproductions.  These  are  but 
a  few  of  the  many  interesting  facts  every  old-furni- 
ture collector  should  know,  points  that  enable  one  to 

[82] 


CHAIRS 

collect  chairs  intelligently  and  with  joy  in  the  pur- 
suit of  a  delectable  hobby  that  is  also  a  very  prac- 
tical one. 


[83] 


CHAPTER  XII 

ENGLISH    DRINKING-GLASSES 

THERE  are  few  general  collectors  who  have 
not,  at  some  time,  come  under  the  enchant- 
ment of  old  glass.  It  is  remarkable  that 
objects  so  fragile  in  fabric  should  have  survived  the 
vicissitudes  of  centuries,  as  have  specimens  not  only 
of  European  glass  but  of  the  ancient  glass  of  Syrian, 
Phoenician,  Greek,  and  Roman  manufacture  as  well. 
Glass-making  in  England  had  an  early  origin,  de- 
rived, it  would  seem  probable,  from  the  Roman  in- 
vaders. We  know  it  to  have  flourished  to  some  ex- 
tent at  Cheddingfold  in  the  thirteenth  century,  con- 
tinuing there  for  several  hundred  years,  as  we  glean 
from  a  reference  in  Thomas  Charnock's  "Breviary 
of  Philosophy,"  published  in  1557,  wherein  is  writ- 
ten :  "You  may  send  to  Cheddingfold  to  the  glass- 
maker  and  desire  him  to  blow  thee  a  glass  after  thy 
devise."  An  entry  in  Evelyn's  Diary  for  February 
10,  1685,  refers  to  "his  Majesty's  health  being  drunk 
in  a  flint  glass  of  a  yard  long,  by  the  Sheriff,  Com- 
mander, Officers  and  Chiefe  gentlemen."     This  re- 

[84] 


ENGLISH  DRINKING-GLASSES 

minds  us  that  flint  glass  was  discovered  and  came 
into  vogue  prior  to  1680;  or  in  that  year  its  fame 
had  caused  it  to  be  so  highly  regarded  elsewhere  in 
Europe  that  manufactories  to  compete  with  English 
ones  were  established  at  Liege  in  that  year.  The 
early  flint  glass  of  England  differed  somewhat  from 
the  later  product.  Probably  the  flint  glass  as  we 
know  it  now  was  not  introduced  before  1730,  or  per- 
fected until  over  a  century  later. 

Of  all  the  English  glass  none  is  more  beautiful  or 
attractive  than  the  drinking-glasses  of  this  period. 
Particularly  is  this  true  of  the  engraved  and  in- 
scribed drinking-glasses  which  collectors  now  eag- 
erly seek.  Rare,  indeed,  these  glasses  have  become, 
and  fortunate  is  the  collector  who  comes  across  a 
"find"  of  the  sort.  English  glass  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  though  less  ornamental  than  Venetian,  was 
nevertheless  more  utilitarian.  In  respect  to  the 
spirit  glasses  and  rummers,  which  succeeded  ale- 
tankards  of  metal  and  of  pottery,  this  is  par- 
ticularly true.  No  "glasse  of  Venice"  could  have 
withstood  the  table  impact  which  the  English  eight- 
eenth-century spirit  glasses  were  designed  to  survive, 
a  virtue  which  gave  them  the  name  of  "firing- 
glasses,"  as  the  setting  down  of  them  by  a  company 
surrounding  the  jovial  board  produced  a  noise  like 

[85] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

a  miniature  cannonade.  Some  of  these  "firing- 
glasses"  in  the  Leckie  Collection,  now  forming  part 
of  the  permanent  collection  of  the  Brooklyn  Art 
Museum,  are  engraved  with  grape-vine  designs,  and 
arms,  and  are  inscribed.  Of  course  such  engraved 
and  inscribed  glasses  are  of  greater  interest  and 
rarity  than  those  which  are  without  decoration  or  in- 
scription. 

The  method  of  classification  of  English  drinking- 
glasses  takes  into  consideration  the  types  of  the  feet, 
the  types  of  the  bowls,  and  the  types  of  the  stems. 
There  is  the  plain-footed  glass,  the  glass  with  the 
folded  foot  (so  called  because  the  outer  circle  of 
the  foot  is  folded  back  beneath  it  to  strengthen  it), 
the  domed  foot  (shaped  as  its  name  suggests),  and 
the  domed-and-folded  foot  glass  (a  combination  of 
dome  and  fold).  The  folded  foot  is  a  type  which 
indicates  early  origin,  just  as  those  glasses  which 
have  the  foot  broader  than  the  bowl  indicate  their 
origin  to  have  been  prior  to  the  first  quarter  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

As  to  types  of  bowls,  there  are  the  drawn  bowl 
(bowl  and  stem  drawn  from  a  single  piece  of  glass, 
as  in  the  glasses  of  the  seventeenth  century) ;  the 
bell-shaped  bowl,  the  waist-formed  bell  bdwl,  the 
waisted  bowl,   the  ovoid  bowl,    the  straight-sided 

[86] 


ENGLISH  DRINKING-GLASSES 

bowl,  the  straight-sided  rectangular  bowl,  the  ogee 
bowl,  the  lipped  ogee  bowl  and  the  double  ogee  form. 
The  waist-formed  bell-shaped  (waisted-bell)  bowl 
is  rarely  met  with — the  early  eighteenth  century 
marks  its  decline — and  the  waisted  bowl  is  uncom- 
mon also.  The  bell-shaped  bowls  seem  longest  to 
have  maintained  favor.  The  Bristol  Glass  Works 
originated  the  ogee  bowl  shapes,  which  date  from 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

As  to  the  types  of  stems,  the  earliest  in  design  is 
the  baluster  stem,  in  use  as  early  as  1680,  and  popu- 
lar till  1730;  the  plain  stem,  most  frequently  met 
with  in  glasses  from  1700  to  1750;  the  air-twist 
stem,  in  vogue  from  1725  to  1775,  and  perhaps  later; 
the  opaque  white  twist  stem,  dating  from  1745  till 
the  end  of  the  century;  the  air  and  opaque  white 
twist  stem,  the  color  twist  stem,  and  the  cut  stem, 
dating  from  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  Air-bubbles  imprisoned  in  the  stems  of 
glasses  have  given  to  this  type  of  glass  the  name  of 
"tear-glass."  Almost  without  exception  the  "tears" 
have  their  points  downward,  although  glasses  show- 
ing the  reverse  of  this  have  in  rare  instances  been 
met  with. 

The  air-twist  stems  are  an  evolution  of  the  tears. 
The  glass  containing  air-bubbles  came  to  be  heated 

[87] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

and  drawn  out  and  ingeniously  manipulated  in  such 
a  way  as  to  produce  the  effect  of  twisted  filaments 
which  formed  such  patterns  within  the  glass  as  one 
now  and  then  chances  to  find.  Before  manipulation 
the  bubbles  were  produced  artificially  by  pricking 
into  the  glass,  softened  by  heat  and  covered  over,  in 
turn,  with  a  film  of  molterl  glass. 

The  opaque  white  twist  stem,  and  also  the  color 
twist  stem,  were  obtained  after  the  Venetian  fashion 
of  making  Millefiori  glass,  described  in  Chapter 
XXVII  (page  221),  as  derived  from  the  Ro- 
man glass  of  antiquity.  Rare  specimens  of  stems 
are  found  with  delicate  tints  of  blue  and  red  among 
the  filaments. 

All  these  twist  and  tear  stems  are  nowadays  re- 
produced and  are  occasionally  fraudulently  offered 
the  unwary  as  genuine.  But  such  glass  neither  rings 
true  nor  is  right  in  color,  though  the  copyists  are 
coming  to  display  their  skill  in  the  matter  of  tint 
likewise,  even  though  balked  by  specific  gravity.  A 
number  of  the  cut-stem  glasses  were  coaching-glasses 
— that  is,  glasses  without  feet,  which  stood  inverted 
on  the  tray  when  brought  to  the  coach  traveler  at  a 
relay  inn.  After  his  hasty  drink  the  traveler  would 
replace  the  glass  inverted,  hence  there  was  no  need 
for  a  foot;  and  there  was  less  likelihood  of  a  tray 

[88] 


ENGLISH  DRINKING-GLASSES 

of  such  glasses,  hurriedly  carried,  coming  to  grief 
through  carelessness.  With  the  advent  of  railroads 
and  the  decline  of  coaching  such  glasses  were  retired 
from  service.  Many  of  these  old-time  coaching- 
glasses  were  engraved  and  inscribed,  but  few  of 
them  have  survived  and  a  specimen  would,  indeed, 
be  a  piece  de  resistance  in  any  collection  of  glass. 

We  see  from  these  notes  that  there  is  less  guess- 
work connected  with  the  study  and  collecting  of  old 
glass  than  one  uninitiated  in  the  rudiments  of  its 
lore  might  suppose.  Nothing  is  without  a  reason; 
the  thing  is  to  find  the  raison  d'etre — that  is  a  true 
collector's  pleasure. 

Of  all  the  engraved  or  the  inscribed  English  glass 
none  is  more  interesting  in  its  historical  connection 
than  the  Jacobite  drinking-gl asses.  Their  story, 
briefly,  is  this:  After  the  flight  of  James  II  left 
William  of  Orange  firmly  in  possession  of  the  gov- 
ernment, an  act  of  Parliament,  in  1701,  formally 
excluded  the  house  of  Stuart  from  the  throne  and 
settled  the  succession  (after  William  and  his  sister- 
in-law  Anne  should  have  died)  upon  the  house  of 
Hanover.  Prince  Charles  James  Edward,  Chevalier 
of  St.  George  (the  son  of  James  II),  was  recognized 
by  Louis  XIV  of  France  as  rightful  King  of  Eng- 
land.    This  led  William  to  prepare  to  make  war  on 

[89] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

France,  when  death  overtook  him,  and  Anne  be- 
came Queen  of  England.  Queen  Anne,  thanks  to 
Marlborough,  successfully  carried  out  William's  pol- 
icies, and  every  attempt  of  the  Stuarts  to  regain  the 
throne  was  frustrated.  Anne  died  in  1714,  but  as 
early  as  1710  the  Cycle,  a  famous  and  factious  Ja- 
cobite club,  was  formed.  Other  Jacobite  clubs 
followed  throughout  England  and  Scotland.  The 
Jacobites  were,  of  course,  those  who  sought  to 
restore  the  house  of  Stuart  to  the  throne,  a  danger- 
ous treason  from  the  Crown's  point  of  view,  and  those 
Jacobites  who  had  any  desire  to  keep  their  heads 
on  their  shoulders  had  to  proceed  with  care  and  se- 
crecy. Nevertheless,  even  after  the  rebellion  of 
1715  and  the  famous  "disappointment"  of  1745  ^^^ 
Jacobites,  when  toasting  the  king,  would  hold  their 
drinking-glasses  above  a  bowl  of  water  to  signify 
that  they  drank  to  "the  king  over  the  water,"  the 
Old  Pretender  or,  after  his  death,  to  the  Young 
Pretender. 

The  bolder  Jacobites  had  their  drinking-glasses  en- 
graved with  Stuart  emblems :  a  heraldic  rose  and  two 
buds  were,  for  instance,  emblematic  of  James  II,  his 
son,  and  his  grandson,  while  the  star,  oak-leaves, 
and  acorns,  etc.,  were  obvious  in  allusion.  The  very 
boldest  Jacobites  had  glasses  inscribed  with  mottoes 

[90] 


ENGLISH  DRINKING-GLASSES 

— Fiat  being  the  most  general  one,  as  this  "Let  it  be 
done,"  was  the  motto  of  the  Cycle  Club,  ancestor 
of  Jacobite  activity.  The  more  timid  Jacobites  con- 
tented themselves  with  symbols  or  inscriptions  en- 
graved upon  the  under  side  of  the  foot  of  the  glass. 
One  comes  across  specimens  of  the  Fiat  Jacobite 
drinking-glass  with  the  two  oak-leaves  engraved  on 
the  foot.  Others  are  engraved  with  the  heraldic 
rose  upon  the  bowl  and  a  star  upon  the  foot.  A 
large  glass — its  owner  must  have  been  the  very 
boldest  Jacobite  of  all  I — is  inscribed  A  udentior  Ibo 
and  also  bears  the  portrait  of  the  Young  Pretender, 
whose  death  in  1788  did  not,  strangely  enough,  put 
an  end  to  Jacobite  activities.  Indeed,  the  "Stuart 
fascination"  is  one  of  history's  great  mysteries.  On 
the  foot  of  Jacobite  glasses  one  sometimes  finds  en- 
graved the  feathers  of  the  crest  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales ;  the  rose  and  two  buds  of  the  Stuarts  on  the 
bowl.  Still  other  glasses  are  not  heraldic,  but  have 
the  heraldic  Stuart  rose  engraved  upon  the  foot. 

It  is  truly  remarkable  that  any  of  these  Jacobite 
glasses  should  have  survived,  for  many  of  them  must, 
in  their  perilous  time,  have  had  to  meet  with  de- 
struction to  escape  serving  as  telltales  when  sudden 
and  unexpected  raids  upon  Jacobite  strongholds 
were  made  by  the  officers  of  the  Crown.     Some  of 

[91] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

these  engraved  and  inscribed  Jacobite  glasses  were 
probably  decorated  upon  the  Continent,  but  most 
of  them  are  of  English  workmanship  in  engraving 
as  well  as  in  manufacture.  Probably  many  of  the 
Jacobite  glasses  were  made  at  the  glass-works  of 
Newcastle-on-Tyne,  proximity  to  the  border  of  Scot- 
land making  such  a  location  convenient  on  occasion. 
I  think  but  few  should  be  attributed  to  the  Bristol 
glass-workers.  Probably  the  largest  number  of  Ja- 
cobite glasses  were  made  shortly  before  the  "Forty- 
five." 

As  the  Jacobites  had  specially  engraved  and  in- 
scribed glasses,  so,  too,  did  the  partisans  of  King 
William.  Williamite  glasses  were  to  be  found  in 
Ireland  as  well,  where  a  number  of  them — some  are 
extant — were  engraved  with  anti-Jacobite  toasts. 
But  when  it  was  not  likely  that  the  Irish  could  for- 
get James  II.  Authorities  are  not  agreed  as  to  which 
were  first  put  forth,  Williamite  or  Jacobite  glasses, 
but  I  am  inclined  to  think  precedence  in  chronologi- 
cal order  should  be  given  to  the  engraved  and  in- 
scribed Williamite  ones.  There  were,  of  course, 
fewer  Williamite  glasses  than  Jacobite  glasses,  just 
as  later  there  were  fewer  Hanoverian  glasses,  as  the 
Williamites  and  the  Hanoverians  were  in  the  ascend- 
ant, and  public  loyalty  considered  itself  beyond  the 

[92] 


ENGLISH  DRINKING-GLASSES 

necessity  of  symbolizing  its  fealty  in  other  than  the 
simple  toast. 

One  may  also  include  mention  here  of  the  Han- 
overian engraved  and  inscribed  glasses,  one  of  which, 
for  instance,  was  made  to  commemorate  the  corona- 
tion of  George  IV.  Finally  we  come  to  rummers 
engraved  with  Nelson  subjects,  commemorating  Eng- 
land's naval  hero.  These,  of  course,  are  early  nine- 
teenth century,  as  Nelson  lived  till  1805. 


[93] 


CHAPTER  XIII 

STUART    EMBROIDERIES 

THE  Stuart  period  of  embroideries  is  one  of 
great  interest  to  the  collector.  A  few  years 
ago  comparatively  little  attention  was  paid 
to  examples  of  English  embroidered  work  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  Specimens  of  the  sort  are  now 
eagerly  sought  for,  not  only  by  private  collectors 
but  by  public  museums  as  well.  True  it  is  that  the 
English  embroideries  of  the  seventeenth  century  are 
not  comparable  in  artistic  quality  with  those  of 
earlier  periods,  although  the  technical  skill  displayed 
therein,  particularly  in  the  class  known  as  stump- 
work,  has  not  been  surpassed  in  English  needle-work 
of  any  period  since  that  of  the  very  early  ecclesiasti- 
cal embroideries.  Certain  of  its  characteristic  pat- 
terns survived  the  Elizabethan  reign,  only  to  de- 
generate, during  King  James's  time,  into  what  one 
must  confess  to  be  some  of  the  most  uninteresting 
work  in  the  whole  history  of  English  embroidery. 
Some  quilted  work,  inspired  by  Oriental  design,  and 
certain  crewels  for  hangings,  were  exceptions. 

[94] 


STUART  EMBROIDERIES 

This  Oriental  influence  was  due  to  the  rapidly- 
developing  intercourse,  through  commerce,  of  Eng- 
land with  India  and  China,  which  marked  the 
reign  of  James  I  and  that  of  the  two  Charleses;  a 
proclamation  of  Charles  I,  in  1631,  for  instance,  per- 
mitted the  importation  from  the  East  Indies  of 
"quilts  of  China  embroidered  with  gold."  Obelisks 
and  pyramids  were  favorite  devices  with  the  em- 
broiderers of  James  I,  just  as  they  were  with  wood- 
carvers  and  silversmiths  of  the  day,  a  fact  interest- 
ing to  note,  as  these  devices  often  aid  the  collector 
in  fixing  the  period  of  an  object  he  may  be  studying. 
Toward  the  end  of  this  reign  it  became  fashionable 
to  represent  religious  subjects  in  needlework.  The 
manufacture  of  tapestry  in  England  flourished  side 
by  side  with  embroidery  throughout  the  reign  of 
James  I  and  those  of  Charles  I  and  Charles  II, 
and  it  was  from  tapestry  subjects  that  the  needle- 
work pictures  of  the  Stuart  period  derived  their  in- 
spiration. So  thoroughly  established  had  their 
vogue  become,  that  although  the  fabrication  of  tapes- 
try rapidly  declined  toward  the  end  of  the  reign  of 
Charles  II,  embroidered  pictures  still  held  their  own. 

The  petit  point  or  tent-stitch  was  effectively  em- 
ployed in  the  tapestry  embroideries  of  this  period. 
In  its  earliest  form  this  stitch  was  worked  over  a  sin- 

[95] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

gle  thread  and  produced  a  massed  effect  of  very  fine 
lines.  The  tapestry  embroideries  of  the  Stuart  pe- 
riod often  mirrored  with  extraordinary  fidelity  the 
fashions  in  the  dress  of  the  time. 

Among  objects  in  Stuart  embroidery  I  have  seen 
a  little  jewel-cabinet  carried  out  mainly  in  silk 
flosses  and  some  wool  worked  on  irregularly  woven 
tawny- white  canvas,  the  material  generally  in  use  for 
petit  point  work,  though  the  stitch  employed  in 
carrying  out  the  pictorial  subjects  which  adorned  the 
sections  of  this  cabinet  is  known  as  long-stitch. 

Almost  as  precious  as  some  of  the  jewels  which 
once  may  have  been  treasured  in  this  cabinet  are 
the  embroidered  sachets,  jewel-boxes,  needle-case, 
pincushion,  and  two  bits  of  beadwork  which  were 
tucked  away  in  its  recesses.  Next  to  the  long- 
stitch  work  of  the  cabinet  itself,  the  stump-work 
sachet  was  perhaps  the  most  important  of  these 
pieces.  Stump-work  consisted  of  featherstitching 
(though  all  other  stitches  were  also  employed)  under 
which  a  padding  was  placed  to  form  raised  surfaces, 
taking  this  suggestion  perhaps  from  the  ancient  opus 
anglicanum.  These  elevations  or  "stumps,"  as  they 
were  called,  were  of  cloth,  of  hair,  of  wool,  and  some- 
times of  wood,  paper,  and  parchment.  In  fact,  their 
materials  were  various.     These  stumps  were  glued 

[96] 


W  5. 
oq    o 

0)     c 


c  2 


1^ 


"^^^ 

^^^mQ^B^'^' 

,  -^^ 

Courtesy  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 

Dutch  Delft  Shelf  Ornaments,  The  Cow  by  Jacobus  Holder,  dated  1765 
Four   Dutch   Delft   Tiles,    17th    Cfntuiy 


STUART  EMBROIDERIES 

or  basted  on  a  ground  of  (generally)  white  satin,  and 
the  stitching  was  then  executed  to  cover  the  stump- 
ing. 

Quaint  in  conceit,  though  often  crude  enough  in 
design,  are  the  stitched  emblems  in  much  of  this 
stump-work.  The  twice-repeated  caterpillar  was  an 
emblem  of  the  Stuart  dynasty  often  employed,  nor 
are  other  emblems  without  lintended  significance. 
The  eyes  of  the  birds,  animals,  and  insects  are  often 
marked  by  seed-pearls,  a  practice  of  even  earlier  date 
in  England,  as  one  finds  from  the  inventory  of  St. 
James  House,  1549,  wherein  is  mentioned  a  picture 
"of  needlework,  partly  garnished  with  seed  pearl." 

Silver  threads  are  also  effectively  introduced  in 
Stuart  embroideries  and  edgings  of  silver  lace  sur- 
round many  of  the  objects  such  as  the  pincushion. 
Many  Stuart  embroidery  patterns  were  copied  from 
the  designs  of  the  richly  brocaded  silks  of  the  period. 


[97] 


CHAPTER  XIV 


DELFT 


WHEN  Horace  Walpole's  ceramic  treas- 
ures at  Strawberry  Hill  came  by  inheri- 
tance to  Lord  Waldegrave  they  were 
sent  to  the  auction  room.  It  took  twenty-seven  days 
of  long  sessions  for  the  auctioneers  to  dispose  of  them, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  there  were  eager  bid- 
ders for  every  lot  in  his  extensive  collection.  Of 
Walpole  it  was  said : 

China  *s  the  passion  of  his  soul. 
A  cup,  a  plate,  a  dish,  a  bowl, 
Can  kindle  wishes  in  his  breast, 
Inflame  with  joy  or  break  his  rest. 

And  how  many  others  there  are  of  us  who  suc- 
cumb to  this  same  passion!  Pottery  and  porcelain 
have,  I  think,  more  devotees  in  the  temples  of  an- 
tiques and  curios  than  almost  any  other  of  the  house- 
hold gods.  Clay  feet  we  know  them  to  have,  but 
we  display  their  shrines ! 

Dutch  delft  is  one  of  the  sorts  of  pottery  that  is 

[98] 


DELFT 

especially  dear  to  the  gatherer  of  things  ceramic. 
Its  popularity  has  brought  it  to  be  uncommon,  but 
if  it  is  true  that  twenty  years  is,  as  statisticians  say 
it  is,  the  average  time  for  a  collection  to  rest  before 
it  comes  upon  the  market  again,  we  may  take  com- 
fort in  the  fact  that  opportunities  for  picking  up  old 
delft  are  not  vanishing.  We  have  only  to  lie  in 
wait  for  them,  to  be  courageous  in  competition  and 
alert  in  interest. 

No  faience  has  crept  more  winningly  into  litera- 
ture than  this  to  which  the  quaint,  quiet  little  city 
that  lies  between  The  Hague  and  Rotterdam  has  lent 
its  name.  Here  William  the  Silent  dwelt  and  here 
he  met  his  tragic  death.  Here  in  the  little  church 
is  the  tomb  of  Admiral  van  Tromp.  Here,  too,  the 
Prince  of  Orange  came  to  live.     Knowles  says : 

With  the  advent  of  the  Prince  and  the  foreign  missions, 
with  their  extensive  retinue  of  servants,  came  increased 
wealth  on  the  top  of  Delft's  own  commercial  and  industrial 
prosperity.  It  did  more;  it  brought  the  cultivation  of 
artistic  feeling  and  luxury,  and  a  number  of  distinguished 
men  of  foreign  culture  and  tastes — rich,  sumptuous,  money- 
spending,  arrayed  in  costly  brocades,  moving  in  elegant  car- 
riages; notables  and  magistrates  from  neighbouring  prov- 
inces and  towns — all  with  a  train  of  officialdom  pertaining  to 
their  rank,  with  the  strict  precedence  and  etiquette,  and  the 
ceremonies  of  the  times. 

I99] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

The  requirements  of  the  well-to-do  households  of 
Delft  gave  encouragement  to  the  potter's  art.  The 
Dutch  were  well  acquainted  with  the  enameled  and 
glazed  pottery  of  Italy  and  of  Spain.  Such  maiolica 
ware  undoubtedly  inspired  experiment.  With  the 
importation  of  the  Chinese  blue-and-white  porcelain 
— probably  all  that  came  to  Europe  at  that  early 
period  passed  first  to  Holland — the  distinctive  fa- 
ience we  know  as  old  Dutch  delft  came  into  making, 
but  it  assumed  distinctive  qualities  immediately,  dif- 
ferentiating it  from  either  the  porcelain  of  China  or 
the  white-ground  wares  of  Italy  and  Spain. 

Some  one  once  said  to  me :  "I  wish  I  could  begin 
to  collect  real  old  delft,  but  I  am  afraid  it  is  so  diffi- 
cult to  pass  judgment  on  pieces  that  without  an  ex- 
pert to  turn  to  constantly  I  should  find  my  cabinet 
full  of  spurious  ware.  Mr.  An tiqueman  tells  me  it 
is  very  difficult  to  tell  a  piece  of  genuine  old  delft, 
unless  one  has  had  the  years  of  experience  he  has  had 
with  it."  Happening  to  have  a  slight  acquaintance 
with  this  Mr.  Antiqueman,  I  did  not  find  it  difficult 
to  understand  why  he  chose  to  throw  such  mystery 
around  the  subject.  Personally  I  think  too  many 
antique  men  lose  more  than  they  gain  by  so  zealously 
guarding  those  trade  secrets  that  are  no  secrets  at 
all. 

[lOO] 


DELFT 

Once  to  know  old  Dutch  delft  is  never  to  forget 
it.  The  knowing  of  it  is  not  a  difficult  matter,  once 
it  is  explained  and  one  has  contact  with  a  genuine 
piece  as  an  object-lesson. 

In  the  first  place,  old  Dutch  delft  is  a  pottery,  not 
a  porcelain.  Pottery  is  always  opaque,  while  porce- 
lain is  always  translucent.  Break  a  pottery  object 
and  it  will  be  seen  that  it  was  formed  of  a  baked 
clay  base  glazed  or  enameled  over  with  a  substance 
that  has  given  it  a  coating  which  does  not  seem  to 
be  incorporated  in  substance  with  the  base.  Break  a 
porcelain  object  and  you  will  discover  that  all  the 
way  through  it  appears  of  a  translucent  substance. 
Old  Dutch  delft  of  the  earliest  sort  was  composed  of 
a  soft,  friable,  reddish  clay  base.  Dutch  delft  of  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  had  a  body  base 
of  yellowish  or  pale-brown  color. 

These  bases  instead  of  being  glazed  were  coated 
with  an  enamel-like  slip.  Tin  entered  into  the  com- 
position of  this  coating  and  this  tin-enamel  gave  it 
a  surface  which  I  should  describe  as  densely  opaque, 
with  a  metallic  feel  but  without  the  metallic  lustre, 
for  instance,  of  the  maiolica  wares  of  Italy  and  of 
Spain.  The  surface  of  old  delft  is  absolutely  differ- 
ent from  the  glazed  surface  of  porcelain,  of  modern 
pottery. 

[lOl] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

The  modern  delft  of  to-day  is  not  to  be  confused 
with  the  old  Dutch  delft.  The  Dutch  ware  made 
to-day  which  passes  with  the  old  name  is  a  glazed 
ware  and  not,  like  the  old,  an  enameled  ware.  In 
modern  so-called  delft  one  can  see  through  the  glaze. 
As  I  have  said,  old  Dutch  delft  presents  a  completely 
opaque  surface. 

Just  here  I  should  say  that  in  some  of  the  later 
sorts  of  old  Dutch  delft  a  glaze  was  added  to  the 
enameled  surface,  but  as  the  enameled  coating  is 
there,  one  will  readily  recognize  it  beneath  the  glaze. 
As  the  clay  base  of  old  Dutch  delft  was  so  soft  and 
friable,  the  surface  of  a  piece  was  entirely  coated 
with  the  tin-enamel.  While  it  was  not  metallic 
in  the  sense  of  having  a  metallic  lustre  like  the 
maiolica  of  Deruta  or  of  Gubbio,  light  glinted  across 
the  surface  of  a  piece  of  old  delft  reveals  a  tinny 
sheen.  The  surface  will  prove  smooth  to  the  touch, 
but  it  will  not  feel  glassy  as  does  that  of  a  glazed 
ware. 

So  friable  is  old  delft  that  it  is  prone  to  crip  at 
the  edges,  there  revealing  the  brown  body  base  of 
the  under  clay.  A  drop  of  strong  acid  dropped  on 
the  body  clay  thus  exposed  will  effervesce,  since 
there  is  carbonate  of  lime  in  the  understructure  of  old 
delft.     This  body  clay  is  so  soft  that  it  is  easily 

[102] 


DELFT 

cut  with  a  knife.  This  cannot  be  said  of  the  Eng- 
lish Lambeth  delft,  which  English  ware,  though  in- 
spired by  the  old  Dutch  delft  and  contemporary  with 
much  of  it,  was  of  a  much  harder  body  base,  denser 
and  more  glossy  than  the  Dutch  clay.  The  enamel 
lay  much  more  closely  and  evenly  to  the  body  base 
in  old  Dutch  delft  than  it  did  in  the  English  delft. 

Dutch  delft  rarely  crazed  in  the  kiln;  English  delft 
often  did  so  and  in  consequence  its  enameled  sur- 
face came  to  be  glazed  to  prevent  this. 

Then  one  often  finds  the  colors  of  the  decoration 
of  old  Dutch  delft  to  have  run — neither  under  nor 
over  the  enamel  surface  but  into  the  enamel.  This 
is  because  the  colors  were  put  upon  the  Dutch  delft 
while  the  enamel  was  still  wet  and  fixed  in  it  during 
the  liquefaction  and  fixing  of  the  surface  coat- 
ing in  the  firing  of  the  piece  in  the  kiln.  In  such 
pieces  of  English  delft  as  show  the  colors  of  their 
decoration  to  have  run,  it  will  be  seen  distinctly 
that  these  colors  have  run  upon  the  enamel  of  the 
surface  and  not  into  or  with  it. 

Finally  the  color  of  the  clay  body  of  the  Lambeth 
delft  of  England  is  buff. 

While  nature  has  given  us  a  sense  of  blue  skies, 
scientists  will  tell  you  that  she  has  been  overly  spar- 
ing with  blue  in  flowers  and  in  bird  life.     The  Chi- 

[103] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

nese  had  long  placed  this  color  as  the  first  of  the  five 
nominated  in  their  popular  traditions.  To  blue  they 
gave  a  symbolism  rich  and  varied.  They  associated 
it  with  the  East,  for  instance,  and  again  with  wood. 
It  is  natural  that  it  should  have  been  a  favorite  color 
for  the  Chinese  ceramicist.  The  palace  china  of 
some  of  the  early  Chinese  emperors  reserved  the  priv- 
ilege of  blue  decoration,  a  blue,  as  an  old  Chinese 
writer  tells  us,  as  "seen  through  a  rift  in  the  clouds 
after  rain."  It  was  not  until  the  sixteenth  century 
that  the  Chinese  obtained  cobalt.  This  bright  and 
vivid  blue  made  speedy  headway  as  against  the 
grayer  blues  that  until  then  had  alone  been  produced 
by  the  Chinese  ceramic  artist.  Cobalt  was  intro- 
duced into  China  by  either  the  Jesuits  or  the  Mo- 
hammedans ;  the  Chinese  themselves  named  the  color 
"Moslem  Blue." 

The  blue-and-white  porcelain  of  China  appears  to 
have  made  a  direct  appeal  to  the  Dutch  potters. 
Blue  was  the  earliest  color  used  by  them  in  their 
delft  decoration.  Purple  followed,  and  after  that 
the  green,  yellow,  brown,  and  red  of  the  polychrome 
delft  pieces  that  we  know. 

We  do  know  how  popular  the  Dutch  blue-and- 
white  became.  Every  year  quantities  of  it  found 
their  way  to  England.     Much  of  it  was  sold  there 

[104] 


DELFT 

at  the  Dutch  Fair  held  annually  in  Yarmouth. 
King  Charles  II  soon  came  to  fear  the  effect  on  local 
potteries  of  the  extended  importation  of  Dutch  delft 
into  England  and  in  consequence  issued  a  proclama- 
tion against  this  commerce,  declaring  the  sale  of 
Dutch  delft  in  England  to  be  "to  the  great  discour- 
agement of  so  useful  a  manufacture  so  late  found 
out"  at  home,  presumably  by  the  potters  of  Lam- 
beth, who  naturally  would  not  be  slow  in  attempt- 
ing to  imitate  the  Dutch  ware  so  flourishingly  in 
vogue.  Probably  Dutch  potters  had  come  over  to 
work  in  the  English  ateliers.  In  the  British  Mus- 
eum are  interesting  examples  of  English  delft,  a  par- 
ticularly fine  set  of  plates  having  a  line  of  poetry 
on  each,  so  that  when  the  six  are  arranged  in  proper 
order  they  form  a  little  five-line  verse. 


[105] 


CHAPTER  XV 

EARLY    DESK    FURNITURE 

THE  appeal  of  old  furniture  which  has  the 
merit  of  form,  design,  and  workmanship  of 
high  order  is  one  that  is  not  the  reflection 
of  a  passing  fad  or  fancy;  it  has  come  to  be  one  of 
attachment  and  genuine  sincerity.  If  it  took  the 
greater  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  to  teach  us  the 
futility  of  fixing  our  affections  on  exaggerated  nov- 
elties, such  as  those  which  dimmed  the  reign  of  Queen 
Victoria  and  boomed  the  Bunthomes  of  the  'eighties, 
the  twentieth  century  finds  us  discriminatingly  chas- 
tened. We  are  taking  out  of  our  houses,  those  of  us 
who  can,  the  pieces  of  furniture  that  ought  not  to 
have  been  made,  putting  into  their  places  old-time 
things  of  beauty,  or,  when  it  is  not  possible  for  us 
to  acquire  veritable  antique  pieces,  the  high-grade 
reproductions  of  old  furniture  that  now  grace  the 
market  and  show  no  abatement  in  popular  esteem. 

In  classifying  the  hobbies  of  several  thousand  col- 
lectors who  stated  their  preferences,  I  found  that 
a  greater  number  were  interested  in  old  furniture 

[106] 


EARLY  DESK  FURNITURE 

than  in  any  one  other  subject.  This  fact  is  not 
strange,  when  one  comes  to  consider  the  utilitarian 
phase.  Generally,  the  collector  of  old  furniture 
starts  in  with  the  chance  possession  of  two  or  three 
antique  bits  which,  by  inspiring  interest  and  appre- 
ciation, lead  him  to  wish  to  bring  the  other  house 
furnishings  into  harmony  with  the  loveliness  of  the 
old  pieces.  Few  collectors  of  antique  furniture,  of 
course,  are  without  homes  of  their  own,  or  the  mod- 
ern substitute — the  long-lease  apartment.  The  skill 
of  the  modern  restorer  of  old  furniture  accomplishes 
wonders  with  the  battered  derelicts  of  the  houses  of 
yesterday  by  making  the  old  pieces  to  shine  forth 
in  their  glory  anew;  all  of  which  lends  encourage- 
ment to  the  collector  and  new  zest  to  his  traditional 
delight  in  the  "hunt." 

Upon  first  thought,  a  collection  of  desks  might 
seem  like  a  mastodonian  assemblage.  So  it  would 
be  if  the  collector  placed  them  all  in  a  row  or  all  in  a 
single  room !  But  the  house  of  to-day  can  accommo- 
date— indeed,  finds  necessary — more  than  a  single 
desk  in  its  furnishings.  And  so  the  collector  of  old 
furniture  has  another  impetus  in  his  search,  a  utili- 
tarian one.  Under  the  term  "desk"  we  may  include 
the  various  escritoires,  bureau-bookcases  and  the  sec- 
retaires.    All  of  these,  in  common  with  our  cabi- 

[107] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

nets,  tall-boys,  and  so  on,  had  their  origin  in  the 
chest  or  coffer  of  the  Middle  Ages.  To  the  bottom 
of  the  chest  came  to  be  added  a  drawer.  Next,  side 
doors  instead  of  a  top  lid  came  into  fashion,  and 
in  this  manner  followed  the  many  steps  that  led  to 
the  development  of  the  piece  of  furniture  we  desig- 
nate, for  convenience,  the  desk. 

It  is  not  possible  to  tell  just  when  the  earliest 
desks  were  made.  The  desk  is  a  composite  affair, 
combining  a  cabinet,  a  bureau,  drawers,  and  a  writ- 
ing-table. In  Ghirlandaio's  painting  "Saint  Jer- 
ome in  His  Study" — a  work  of  about  1480,  found  in 
the  collection  of  the  Ognissanti  in  Florence — we  see 
depicted  a  portable  desk  of  the  "schoolmaster"  type; 
and  another  painting  of  the  same  period  and  in 
the  same  collection,  the  "St.  Augustine"  by  Sandro 
Botticelli,  depicts  a  desk  with  drawers.  In  other 
paintings  by  the  old  masters,  and  in  very  early  en- 
gravings, we  see  delineated  the  various  pieces  of 
furniture  in  contemporary  use  designed  for  writing 
purposes,  as  well  as  others  for  the  account-keeper. 
All  suggest  to  us  the  probable  units  which  combined 
to  produce  the  escritoire  and  the  secretaire  of  later 
centuries,  and  lend  interest  to  the  collector's  enthu- 
siasm for  searching  out  pieces  of  the  sort. 

When  living  was  so  much  less  complex  in  the  mat- 

[108] 


EARLY  DESK  FURNITURE 

ter  of  domestic  doings  than  it  is  in  our  own  time, 
there  was  far  less  need  of  such  objects  as  desks. 
Whole  families,  even  of  the  prosperous  classes,  could 
get  along  without  them  very  well.  Your  Mona 
Lisa  of  the  Renaissance  could  have  carried  her  house- 
hold accounts  in  her  head,  and  probably  did,  while 
the  housewife  of  the  Northern  countries  had  little 
use  for  a  place  to  keep  quires  or  reams  of  correspond- 
ence paper.  Nor  had  they,  in  all  probability,  en- 
tered into  the  sphere  of  feminine  prowess  in  home- 
banking  matters  that  made  necessary  a  writing- 
bureau  sacred  to  personal  command. 

The  finest  examples  of  the  craft  of  the  old  master 
cabinet-makers  of  the  seventeenth  century  and  the 
eighteenth  were  originally  produced  for  wealthy  pa- 
trons who  paid  well  for  the  master's  skill.  While 
such  pieces  must  naturally  be  beyond  the  reach  of 
the  collector  of  moderate  means — except  in  rare  in- 
stances where  complete  ignorance  of  their  value  is 
combined  with  a  desire  to  part  with  them — they  are 
still  always  interesting  to  note,  and  many  of  them 
have  been  reproduced  with  wonderful  skill  by  some 
of  the  leading  masters  of  the  craft  of  furniture-mak- 
ing to-day. 

Of  course,  no  reputable  dealer  will  attempt  to 
pass  off  a  modem  copy  of  anything  as  an  original. 

[109] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

At  the  same  time,  one  may  take  great  pleasure  in 
acquiring  a  truly  fine  copy  of  a  Queen  Anne  secretaire 
or  a  Hepplewhite  bureau,  if  it  is  knowingly  pur- 
chased as  a  copy,  whereas  if  deception  is  practised, 
the  result  must  be  a  disappointment  and  discourage- 
ment to  the  owner,  however  fine  the  piece. 

Unfortunately,  all  dealers  are  not  reliable  and 
occasionally  fraud  is  perpetrated  in  connection  with 
antique  furniture.  Even  the  metal  trimmings — 
knobs,  handles,  etc. — are  given  the  appearance  of 
antiquity  by  all  sorts  of  devices  at  the  command  of 
skilful  craftsmen  who  produce  worm-holes  with 
buck-shot,  antiquity  with  acids,  and  a  worn  appear- 
ance with  friction. 

The  general  furniture-collector  is  not  likely  to 
come  across  anything  in  the  way  of  a  find  in  a  desk 
of  the  Renaissance,  seventeenth-century,  or  even 
early  eighteenth-century  Italian  periods;  nor  is  he 
be  likely  to  meet  with  the  finer  pieces  of  other  early 
continental  furniture,  as  nearly  all  of  these,  if  not  in 
public  or  great  private  collections  already,  would  be 
justly  held  at  a  very  high  price  by  dealers  into  whose 
stock  such  pieces  might  come.  However,  there  are 
frequent  public  sales  of  old  foreign  household  fur- 
nishings, and  great  bargains  may,  indeed,  be  met 
with  at  these.     In  any  event,  the  collector  must  cul- 

[no] 


EARLY  DESK  FURNITURE 

tivate  alertness,  decision,  and  intuition  for  opportu- 
nities to  buy — and  once  in  a  while  to  sell,  too  I 

To  the  European  the  name  bureau,  from  its  French 
derivation,  is  understood  to  be  associated  with  writ- 
ing. In  America  we  connect  the  term  with  a  piece 
of  furniture  designed  to  hold  articles  of  clothing  in 
its  various  drawers.  It  was  somewhere  about  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  that  the  drawer 
was  added  to  the  lower  part  of  the  chest.  Later  in 
the  century  further  drawer  capacity  was  developed, 
and  by  the  beginning  of  the  next  we  find  the  com- 
plete chest  of  drawers  in  use.  In  view  of  this  we 
shall  not  expect  to  find  Jacobean  desks,  though  we 
may  find  cabinets  for  writing-materials  and  docu- 
ments and  even  occasional  desk-like  pieces. 

In  the  William  and  Mary  period  (1688-1702) 
cabinets,  secretaires,  and  bureaus  came  rapidly  into 
use.  Simplicity  and  an  unobtrusive  elegance 
marked  the  designs  of  this  period.  The  desks  dis- 
played distinct  characteristics  which  differentiate 
several  groups.  In  the  first  division  may  be  placed 
the  cabinet  with  bracket  (straight)  feet  or  bun  feet; 
a  whole  front  flap,  which  when  let  down  displayed 
the  drawers  and  the  pigeonholes;  a  top  either  single- 
hooded  or  straight  with  ovolo  frieze.  In  the  second 
division  we  have  the  bureau-desk  with  its  slant- 

[111] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

top  desk-plane.  Here  we  find  the  taller  desk  styles, 
sometimes  with  double-hooded  tops,  with  or  without 
vase-shaped  finials.  The  third  division  includes  the 
narrow  slant-top  desks  on  cup-turned  legs,  flat 
stretchers,  and  bun  feet.  The  knee-hole  desks  (desks 
with  the  center  portion  arranged  to  permit  the  knees 
of  the  writer  to  go  below  the  desk-plane)  constitute 
the  fourth  division,  while  a  fifth  sort  of  desk  had 
gate-legs  braced  by  serpentine  flat  stretchers.  The 
two  center  legs  (there  were  six  in  all),  pulled  out  as 
a  support  for  the  desk-flap  when  its  plane  was  let 
down. 

In  the  William  and  Mary  period  and  in  the  Queen 
Anne  period  succeeding,  the  middle  classes  had  come 
to  a  state  of  education  undreamed  of  in  the  time  of 
Elizabeth.  Letter-writing,  pamphlet- writing,  and 
diary  entries  occupied  many  hours  of  the  day  and 
many  candle-lit  ones  as  well.  This  scriptorial  ac- 
tivity called  for  more  accessories  than  had  been 
needed  earlier.  These  newly  devised  bureau-desks 
combined  solidity  and  dignity.  They  were  dis- 
tinctly architectural  in  design,  with  their  moldings, 
cornices,  and  broken  pediments.  Bombe  fronts  came 
in  with  the  Dutch  influence.  Walnut  was  the  fa- 
vorite wood  employed,  either  solid  or  as  a  veneer 
for  the  wood  bases. 

[112] 


EARLY  DESK  FURNITURE 

The  furniture-makers  of  the  time  of  George  I  were 
beginning  to  find  a  demand,  and  to  supply  it,  for 
writing-tables  with  tiers  of  drawers  at  each  side  of 
the  knee-hole.  From  about  1720  mahogany  entered 
into  furniture-making  extensively.  Its  use  by  the 
American  furniture-makers  in  the  colonies  was  coin- 
cident with,  and  possibly  antedated,  lacquer,  which 
had  been  the  rage  and  as  a  fashionable  fad  continued 
to  hold  the  popular  favor. 

Of  course,  no  writing-furniture  is  more  eagerly 
sought  than  that  of  Chippendale.  There  were  the 
writing-tables  with  bombe  fronts,  the  bureaus,  stand- 
ing on  legs  that  supported  low  bases,  the  bureau- 
bookcase  style  of  desk  (bureau-desk),  the  slant- top 
secretaires,  etc.  In  American  desks  of  the  period  we 
find  the  block-front  to  have  been  very  popular. 

The  writing-furniture  of  the  brothers  Adam  ex- 
hibited the  originality  and  excellence  common  to 
their  other  articles.  They  introduced  the  more  gen- 
eral use  of  satinwood  and  others  of  the  lighter- 
colored  woods,  and  a  contour  of  line  in  design  that 
struck  a  new  note.  Painted  ornament,  too,  was 
used  by  them  more  extensively  than  ever  before  it 
had  been  used  in  English  furniture. 

With  the  furniture  of  Hepplewhite  we  find  the 
three  section  bookcase  desk  in  vogue,  and  the  pull- 

[113] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

over  top  (tambour)  which  was  ancestor  to  the 
modern  roll-top.  The  Hepplewhite  desks  are  in 
great  variety  and  of  much  beauty  and  practical 
utility  as  well.  Sheraton  included  in  his  desks  all 
the  forms  brought  into  fashion  by  Hepplewhite  or 
modified  by  him.  All  these  various  periods  were  re- 
flected in  American  desks,  some  of  them  with  local 
modifications  and  variations. 


[114] 


CHAPTER  XVI 

CHELSEA 

OLD  Chelsea — with  what  associations  is  the 
name  endowed  I  Hither  came  the  wits — 
Smollett,  Steele,  Swift,  Horace  Walpole, 
and  others  of  the  monde.  Those  were  the  days 
when  Chelsea  was  still  a  village  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  boasting  of  Ranelagh  and  its  gaieties  on  the 
one  hand,  and  Cremorne  Gardens  on  the  other. 
Here  was  the  manor  Henry  VIII  had  given  to 
Catherine  Parr  when  Chelsea  was  completely  rural; 
in  Walpole's  time  it  was  just  beginning  to  be  truly 
suburban,  while  now  it  is  so  integral  a  part  of  Lon- 
don that  it  might  long  ago  have  had  its  identity 
swallowed  up  but  for  the  perpetuation  of  its  literary, 
artistic,  and  historical  atmosphere  by  Carlyle  and  his 
circle  and  by  Whistler  and  his. 

The  fifteen  years  from  1750  to  1765  comprised 
the  period  of  old  Chelsea's  social  heyday,  though  the 
aftermath  was  not  without  its  distinctly  brilliant 
though  somewhat  irascible  flashes.  These  were 
years  demanding  fine  things  for  the  fashionables. 

[115] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

Horace   Walpole   and   others   had   stirred   up   the 
passion  for  chinaware  and  the  English  porcelain  and 
pottery-manufacturers  were  kept  busy  not  only  to 
supply  the  demand  but  to  meet  the  exacting  quality 
of  that   demand,    which   called   for  perfection   in 
fahrique.     With  this  in  mind  it  is  not  at  all  strange 
that  some  enterprising  potter  with  a  provident  eye  to 
business  should  have  decided  on  establishing  a  porce- 
lain factory  at  Chelsea.     Just  when  this  venture  was 
established,  history  has  neglected  to  disclose,  but  it 
must  have  been  somewhere  around  1740.     We  do 
know  that  the  Chelsea  porcelain- works  were  already 
celebrated  for  their  wares  in  1745.     Some  students 
of  ceramics  believe  a  very  early  date  should  be  as- 
signed to  Chelsea  productions.     It  is  even  possible 
that  porcelain  was  being  made  in  the  village  as  early 
as  1682,  the  year  in  which  was  begun  the  old  hospital 
for  invalid  soldiers,   designed  by   Sir  Christopher 
Wren.     Of  course  as  Oriental  porcelain  had  been 
introduced  into  England  some  fifty  years  before  that 
— in  1631,  to  be  exact — it  is  likely  enough  that 
works  for  the  purpose  of  imitating  it  were  established 
in  Chelsea.     Horace  Walpole  made  note  of  very 
early  "specimens  of  Chelsea  blue-and-white."     Per- 
haps these  were  the  sort  of  crude  porcelain  which  Dr. 
Martin  Lister  referred  to  in  an  account  of  his  visit 

[u6] 


CHELSEA 

to  France,  in  1695,  wherein  he  mentions  the 
superiority  of  the  "Potterie  of  St.  Clou"  over  the 
"gomroon  ware"  of  England,  although  he  observes 
that  the  English  were  "better  masters  of  the  art  of 
painting  than  the  Chineses,"  a  statement  that  might 
have  applied  to  Chelsea  porcelains  of  the  gomroon^ 
or  imitation  Oriental  genre,  productions  perhaps  an- 
tedating the  native  English  development  in  decora- 
tion. 

The  French  manufacturers  of  1745  had  become 
concerned  over  the  strides  taken  by  the  English  pot- 
ters and  they  petitioned,  accordingly,  for  the  privilege 
of  establishing  a  soft-porcelain  factory  at  Vincennes, 
complaining  of  the  competition  of  English  wares  of 
Chelsea.  Such  early  procelains  as  are  extant  and 
ascribed  to  a  period  coeval  with  that  of  the  porcelain 
of  St.  Cloud  exhibit  clumsiness  and  lack  of  finish. 
Already  the  village  of  Chelsea  had  become  well 
known  in  the  industrial  world  through  its  glass 
manufactory  established  there  by  Venetian  glass- 
workers  under  the  patronage  of  the  Duke  of  Buck- 
ingham, in  1676.  It  may  be  that  the  Chelsea  pot- 
tery was  evolved  as  an  outcome  of  this  experiment, 
an  experiment  so  successful  that  Elers  joined  it  in 
1720. 

The  early  bits  of  Chelsea  were,  almost  entirely, 
[U7] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

copies  of  Oriental  wares  and  mainly  decorated  with 
Chinese  designs.  Queen  Anne  does  not  appear  to 
have  bothered  her  head  particularly  about  the  Chel- 
sea porcelain.  The  Hanoverian  Georges  paid  more 
attention  to  it.  In  their  minds  porcelain  was  too 
intimately  connected  with  the  table  to  escape  royal 
patronage.  George  II  especially  encouraged  the 
manufactory  at  Chelsea.  Frederick  II  had  early 
borrowed  and  taken  from  France  the  art  of  porcelain- 
making  and  had  initiated  his  several  hundred  princes 
in  the  mysteries  of  its  allurements.  Naturally  the 
Hanoverians  were  interested  and  George  II  had 
everything,  from  models  to  workmen,  brought  over 
in  the  hope  of  rivaling  the  wares  of  Sevres  and  of 
Dresden.  The  Duke  of  Cumberland  took  an 
especial  interest  in  the  Chelsea  factory  and  made  it 
an  annual  allowance. 

Soon  the  fame  of  Chelsea  porcelain  had  become  so 
great  that  the  demand  was  far  in  excess  of  the  supply 
and  the  prices  soared  accordingly.  In  1765  contem- 
porary reference  informs  us  that  the  china  of  Chelsea 
was  in  such  repute  "as  to  be  sold  by  auction,  and  as 
a  set  was  purchased  as  soon  as  baked,  dealers  were 
surrounding  the  doors  for  that  purpose.  Watkins 
in  his  "Life  of  Queen  Charlotte"  writes : 

There  are  several  rooms  in  Buckingham  Palace  full  of 

[118] 


CHELSEA 

curiosities  and  valuable  moveables,  but  not  ranged  in  proper 
order.  Among  other  things,  I  beheld  with  admiration  a 
complete  service  of  Chelsea  china,  rich  and  beautiful  in 
fancy  beyond  expression.  I  really  never  saw  any  Dresden 
near  so  fine.  Her  Majesty  made  a  present  of  this  choice 
collection  to  the  duke,  her  brother,  a  present  worthy  of  so 
great  a  prince. 

Indeed,  Horace  Walpole,  in  writing  to  Sir  Horace 
Mann  in  1763,  had  said: 

I  saw  yesterday  a  magnificent  service  of  Chelsea  china, 
which  the  King  and  Queen  are  sending  to  the  Duke  of  Meck- 
lenburg. There  are  dishes  and  plates  without  number,  an 
epergne,  candlestick,  saltcellars,  sauceboats,  tea  and  coffee 
equipage.     In  short,  it  is  complete,  and  cost  £1,200. 

After  the  death  of  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  and 
that  of  the  director  of  the  works,  Nicholas  Sprimont, 
the  porcelain  of  Chelsea  declined.  Grosley's  "Tour 
to  London,"  as  we  have  it  in  Nugent's  translation, 
noted  this.     Apropos  of  earthenware  he  wrote: 

The  manufacturers  of  this  sort  lately  set  on  foot  in  the 
neighborhood  of  London  have  not  been  able  to  stand  their 
ground.  That  at  Chelsea,  the  most  important  of  all,  was 
just  fallen  when  I  arrived  at  that  capital. 

The  last  proprietors  had  pleaded  in  vain  for  further 
state  protection,  but  it  was  not  forthcoming.  It 
closed  its  doors,  while  the  models,  materials,  etc., 

[119] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

were  carted  off  to  Derby,  followed  by  the  forlorn 
workmen  who  witnessed  the  dissolution. 

In  Smith's  "Life  of  Nollekens''  we  find  the  fol- 
lowing reference  to  the  porcelain  of  Chelsea : 

The  factory  stood  just  below  the  bridge  upon  the  sight 
of  Lord  Dartery's  house.  "My  father  worked  for  them  at 
one  time,"  said  NoUekens.  "Yes,"  replied  Betew,  "and  Sir 
James  Thornhill  designed  for  them.  Mr.  Walpole  has  at 
Strawberry  Hill  half-a-dozen  china  plates  by  Sir  James 
which  he  bought  at  Mr.  Hogarth's  sale.  Paul  Ferg  painted 
for  them.  The  cunning  rogues  produced  very  white  and 
delicate  ware,  but  then  they  had  their  clay  from  China, 
which  when  the  Chinese  found  out,  they  would  not  let  the 
captains  have  any  more  for  ballast,  and  the  consequence 
was  that  the  whole  concern  failed." 

Nevertheless,  although  decorated  by  Sir  James 
Thornhill,  these  plates  were  probably  of  Dutch 
fahrique^  and  not  Chelsea. 

We  learn  from  Faulkner's  "History  of  Chelsea" 
that  Dr.  Johnson  "conceived  the  notion  that  he  was 
capable  of  improving  the  manufacture  of  china. 
He  even  applied  to  the  directors  of  the  Chelsea  China 
Works,  and  was  allowed  to  bake  his  compositions 
in  their  ovens  in  Lawrence  Street,  Chelsea.  He  was 
accordingly  accustomed  to  go  down  with  his  house- 
keeper, about  twice  a  week,  and  stayed  the  whole 
day,  she  carrying  a  basket  of  provisions  with  her." 

[120] 


s 

>i 


Courtesy   Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 

Cabinet  Inset  with  Wedgwood  Jasper  Ware  Medallions 


CHELSEA 

One  could  hardly  imagine  the  good  doctor's  advent- 
uring without  the  provisions!  But  alas!  the  doc- 
tor's mixtures  all  yielded  to  the  intensity  of  the  heat, 
while  the  clays  prepared  by  the  company  came  forth 
irritatingly  whole.     Faulkner  says : 

The  Doctor  retired  in  disgust,  but  not  in  despair,  for  he 
afterwards  gave  a  dissertation  on  this  very  subject  in  his 
works ;  but  the  overseer  (who  was  still  living  in  the  spring 
of  1814)  assured  Mr.  Stephens  that  he  (the  overseer)  was 
still  ignorant  of  the  nature  of  the  operation.  He  seemed  to 
think  that  the  Doctor  imagined  one  single  substance  was  suf- 
ficient, while  he,  on  the  other  hand,  asserted  that  he  always 
used  sixteen;  and  he  must  have  had  some  practice,  as  he 
had  nearly  lost  his  eyesight  by  firing  batches  of  Chine, 
Chelsea,  and  Derby,  to  which  the  manufacture  was  after- 
ward carried. 

The  collector  of  old  Chelsea  will  find  it  rare  in- 
deed. But  as  with  so  many  things  worth  while,  an 
occasional  find  will  cause  thrills  of  a  quality  scarcely 
to  be  compared  with  the  ordinary  excitement  of  com- 
ing upon  a  bit  of  commoner  ware.  As  the  Chelsea 
porcelain  was  of  very  soft  paste,  the  pieces  do  not 
withstand  refiring,  in  consequence  of  which  it  is  not 
redecorated  or  patched  up  as  often  is  the  case 
with  many  wares.  The  color  charm  of  old  Chelsea 
is  very  definite.  Where,  for  instance,  in  any  other 
porcelains,  will  one  find  just  its  own  peculiar  claret 

[121] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

color*?  The  earliest  forms  were  Oriental,  undoubt- 
edly, but  the  early  forms  of  Chelsea  within  the 
period  of  its  history  which  is  clear  to  us  were  French. 
Under  the  Georges,  Dresden  exerted  its  influence  in 
form,  color,  and  decoration.  I  have  seen  pieces  of 
Chelsea  that  appeared  comparable  with  Royal 
Sevres,  whose  influence  was  so  distinctly  in  evidence 
from  1750  to  1765.  Especially  fine  are  the  pieces 
which  bear  the  landscape  decorations  painted  by 
Beaumont. 

The  Chelsea  figure  pieces  began  to  appear  about 
1750,  at  least  the  earliest  mention  of  them  extant  is 
dated  about  that  time.  While  they  were  influenced 
by  the  Dresden  and  by  French  figurines,  they  de- 
veloped qualities  of  their  own  and  their  greater  nat- 
uralness and  freedom  from  affectation  at  once  lends 
them  an  unmistakable  distinction.  Not  only  were 
gentle  shepherds,  demure  shepherdesses,  and  swains 
and  sweethearts  modeled  in  old  Chelsea  porcelain, 
but  portrait  busts  as  well  came  into  fashion.  Field- 
Marshal  Conway,  Walpole's  friend,  and  others  inti- 
mate with  the  master  of  Strawberry  Hill  "sat"  to 
Chelsea.  The  George  II  portrait  bust  is  one  of  the 
best  of  the  series. 

The  early  figure  pieces  were  usually  ungilded. 
On  those  that  were  gilded  the  gilt  was  sparingly 

[122] 


CHELSEA 

used.  With  the  advent  of  1760  gorgeous  coloring 
and  a  lavish  use  of  gilding  came  into  play.  Scent- 
bottles,  cane-handles,  knife-  and  fork-handles,  bre- 
loques,  bonbonnieres,  and  patch-boxes  are  a  few  of 
the  many  things  to  which  Chelsea  porcelain  lent  it- 
self. As  to  the  texture  of  the  ware,  it  has  already 
been  said  that  all  genuine  Chelsea  is  of  very  soft 
paste,  requiring  all  decoration  to  be  done  at  one  time, 
as  it  could  not  withstand  a  second  firing.  In  body 
it  is  uneven,  the  paste  having  the  effect  of  poor  mix- 
ing, as  one  will  see  by  holding  a  piece  of  Chelsea  to 
the  light,  when  the  spots  can  be  detected.  The  glaze 
of  the  earliest  pieces  is  thick  and  was  applied  un- 
evenly. Nearly  all  bits  of  Chelsea  porcelain  display 
stilt  marks. 

A  crudely  drawn  triangle  marks  the  Chelsea  ware 
of  the  1745-1751  period.  From  1749  to  1753  in- 
clusive we  find  the  embossed  anchor,  a  raised  anchor 
upon  an  embossed  oval.  Then  followed,  through 
1759,  the  anchor  mark  in  red  or  gold  painted  on  the 
glaze.  Sometimes  Chelsea  pieces  were  marked  with 
two  anchors.  When  the  Derby  Works  acquired  the 
Chelsea  manufactory  and  continued  the  Chelsea 
porcelain  for  a  while,  the  mark  used  was  a  combina- 
tion capital  letter  D  and  an  anchor.  From  1773  ^^ 
1784  the  mark  was  a  crown  over  an  anchor,  or  a 

[123] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

crown  over  a  D,  and  a  combination  D  and  anchor. 
In  the  early  pieces,  which  were  copies  of  Oriental 
ones,  various  pseudo-oriental  marks  were  used  at 
Chelsea,  but  nearly  all  introduce  an  anchor-like  mark. 
This  anchor  was  probably  suggested  by  some  early 
Venetian  workman  in  Chelsea's  first  porcelain  manu- 
factory. Fine  Chelsea  is  rare  enough  to  lead  one  to 
consider  a  few  good  pieces,  even  four  or  five,  a  "col- 
lection." But  whether  or  not  one  is  a  collector, 
every  lover  of  beautiful  porcelain  should  know  some- 
thing of  Chelsea's  interesting  story. 


[124] 


CHAPTER  XVII 

WEDGWOOD 

THE  mention  of  the  name  Wedgwood  natu- 
rally suggests  to  the  general  reader  those 
blue-and-white  pieces  which  made  famous 
England's  greatest  potter — Josiah  Wedgwood.  We 
picture  to  ourselves  the  beautiful  vases,  flower-hold- 
ers, jardinieres,  tea-pots,  cups  and  saucers,  cream- 
ewers,  and  the  like,  and  are  not  aware,  perhaps,  that 
many  other  ornamental  uses  were  served  by  jasper 
ware  (as  Wedgwood  called  this  ceramic  product), 
not  only  in  the  blue-and-white,  but  in  yellow-and- 
white,  green-and-white,  lilac-and-white,  pink-and- 
white,  and  also  in  some  seven  solid  body  colors. 
Among  these  the  small  cameos  in  jasper,  designed 
mainly  for  settings  of  jewelry,  and  the  cameo  me- 
dallions and  cameo  plaquettes  are  of  particular  in- 
terest to  the  collector  of  English  earthenware. 

While  the  cameos  were  mainly  of  the  blue-and- 
white  jasper,  there  were  also  those  in  other  colors 
and  white.  The  same  is  true  of  the  larger  cameo 
medallions  and  cameo  plaquettes,  though  the  color 

[125] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

pieces,  other  than  the  blue-and-white,  are  of  great 
rarity.  The  cameo  medallions  had  great  vogue 
for  ornamental  decorative  purposes.  Jewel-boxes, 
writing-cases,  furniture,  etc.,  were  decorated  with 
them.  An  example  of  the  sort  is  a  drawer-and- 
chest  cabinet  in  the  collections  of  the  Metropolitan 
Museum  of  Art,  New  York.  In  this  instance  both 
small  cameos  and  larger  cameo  medallions  were  em- 
ployed in  the  decoration. 

The  cameo  medallions  and  the  cameo  plaquettes 
were  also  in  great  demand  for  architectural  embel- 
lishments, for  setting  in  mantels,  over-mantels,  door- 
casings,  door  furniture,  etc.  The  small  cameos 
ranged  in  size  from  one  fourth  to  two  and  a  half 
inches  in  diameter.  Josiah  Wedgwood's  genius 
produced  many  useful  and  ornamental  wares,  among 
them  cream  ware  (1761)  called  Queen's  ware  from 
1765;  white  stoneware  (1759);  black  basalt  ware 
(1766);  fine  white  ware  (1773-1775);  jasper  ware 
(1775-1795);  rosso-antico  ware  (1776);  pearl- 
lustre  ware  (1776-1779),  and  cane-colored  jasper 
ware  (1787).  In  perfection  and  fineness  the  vari- 
ous colored  jasper  wares  led  them  all,  and  the  jasper 
cameos  were  hardly  surpassed  by  other  pieces  in  this 
clay. 

As  the  old  firm  founded  by  Josiah  Wedgwood  has 

[126] 


WEDGWOOD 

continued  in  business  uninterruptedly  from  the 
eighteenth  century,  the  recently  revived  modern 
Wedgwood  cameos  which  have  appeared  in  some  of 
the  most  attractive  recent  jewelry  awaken  even 
a  greater  interest  on  the  part  of  the  collector  in 
the  study  of  the  old  pieces.  Beautiful  as  are  the 
cameos  of  modern  Wedgwood  jasper,  those  of 
Josiah's  own  period  ( 1775-1795)  can  readily  be  dis- 
tinguished, not  only  because  of  the  somewhat  less 
soft-to-the-feel  surface  but  also  because  all  foreign 
wares  imported  since  1891  are  required  by  the  tariff 
law  to  be  plainly  marked  with  the  designation  of  the 
country  of  their  manufacture. 

Josiah  Wedgwood  probably  was  inspired  to  ex- 
periment with  his  cameos  and  cameo  medallions  and 
plaquettes  through  having  come  in  contact  with 
James  Tassie,  celebrated  for  his  copies  of  engraved 
gems  in  sulphur  and  in  vitreous  compositions,  some 
of  which  Josiah  had  purchased  in  1769.  His  fertile 
brain  set  to  work  on  the  problem  of  creating  cameo 
productions  from  his  own  ceramic  materials.  After 
surmounting  untold  obstacles  Wedgwood  finally 
achieved  complete  success  in  his  undertaking.  Im- 
mediately there  was  a  great  demand  for  the  cameos, 
by  the  manufacturing  jewelers  of  Birmingham  and 
Sheffield  (who  employed  such  artists  to  mount  them 

[127] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

as  Boulton  and  Watt),  and  elsewhere.  The  mount- 
ings were  of  gold,  of  silver,  and  of  cut  steel.  These 
last  mountings  were  the  most  in  demand.  This 
jewelry  also  became  much  sought  abroad  and  the 
demand  in  America  was  great. 

The  name  cameo  was  first  applied  by  Wedgwood 
in  1772.  Nearly  four  hundred  and  fifty  objects 
were  catalogued  by  1777.  Their  best  period  was 
from  1780  to  1795,  1787  being  the  year  when 
Wedgwood  had  completely  mastered  the  art  of  the 
jasper  cameos  and  cameo  medallions.  There  were 
then  one  thousand  and  thirty-two  subjects  listed — 
subjects  drawn  from  Egyptian  mythology,  Roman 
and  Greek  mythology;  sacrifices;  ancient  philoso- 
phers, poets,  and  orators;  sovereigns  of  Macedonia, 
the  fabulous  age  of  Greece;  the  Trojan  War;  Ro- 
man history;  masks,  Chimaeras;  illustrious  moderns, 
and  so  on. 

Even  originally  the  small  cameos  were  not  cheap 
in  price.  In  wholesale  lots  of  ten  some  five  shillings 
apiece  was  asked  for  them  by  Wedgwood.  Unfor- 
tunately, all  the  cameo  subjects  are  not  now  to  be 
identified  completely,  even  where  given  in  the  old 
catalogue,  as  no  descriptions  were  placed  on  the  sub- 
jects sold  to  the  general  public  to  identify  them  with 
the  catalogue  entries. 

[128] 


WEDGWOOD 

Cameos  and  cameo  medallions  and  plaquettes  were 
made  both  in  solid  jasper  and  in  dip  jasper.  The 
former  ceramic  paste  was  colored  clear  through,  while 
the  latter  was  surface-colored  only.  Wedgwood 
employed  some  of  the  most  famous  designers  of  his 
day,  among  them  John  Flaxman,  William  Hack- 
wood,  Roubillac,  James  Tassie,  John  Bacon,  Thomas 
Stothard,  Webber,  Pacetti,  George  Stubbs,  William 
Greatback,  Davaere,  Angelini,  and  Dalmazzoni ;  and 
such  gifted  amateurs  as  Lady  Templeton  and  Lady 
Diana  Beauclerk  drew  for  him. 

The  small  cameos  were  fired  but  once;  the  large 
cameo  medallions  and  the  plaquettes  were  given  a 
second  firing.  Fine  old  Wedgwood  is  as  soft  as  satin 
to  the  touch,  and  most  of  it  was  left  with  a  dull  matt 
surface,  although  jasper  is  capable  of  receiving  a 
high  polish  on  the  lapidary's  wheel.  While  some 
few  pieces  of  Wedgwood  were  not  marked,  nearly 
all  of  it  was.  The  collector  should  be  told  that 
many  imitated  pieces  have  borne  the  name  spelled 
with  an  e  after  the  ^,  thus:  Wedgewood.  No  gen- 
uine Wedgwood,  old  or  modern,  bears  other  spelling 
of  the  name  than  * 'Wedgwood." 


[129] 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

SAVING    THE    PIECES 

OLD  porcelain  and  earthenware,  anid  even 
old  glass,  may  be  skilfully  mended  so  as 
almost  to  pass  as  whole;  and  lost  parts 
may  be  "restored"  to  a  condition  that  will  leave  an 
object  not  to  be  a  reproach  to  one's  collection.  Of 
course,  the  collection  should  entrust  such  mending 
and  restoring  to  the  hand  of  an  expert,  at  least  where 
broken  or  damaged  pieces  are  of  particular  rarity. 
Probably  the  famous  Portland  Vase,  now  in  the  Brit- 
ish Museum,  is  the  most  remarkable  example  of 
mending  and  restoring  we  know  of. 

This  celebrated  vase,  it  will  be  remembered, 
was  discovered  in  a  sarcophagus  in  an  ancient  tomb 
not  far  from  the  Frascati  Road,  near  Rome,  about 
the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  From  its 
first  owners,  after  its  discovery,  it  was  known  as  the 
Barberini  Vase  until  it  passed  from  the  hands  of  Sir 
William  Hamilton  (who  had  purchased  it  for  a 
thousand  pounds)  into  the  possession  of  the  Duchess 

[130] 


SAVING  THE  PIECES 

of  Portland.  Thenceforth  it  was  known  as  the 
"Portland  Vase." 

This  vase,  which  was  of  a  deep,  blue-black  glass, 
decorated  with  semi-translucent  cameo  figures  of 
white,  cut  in  relief  upon  a  dark  ground  in  a  truly 
marvelous  manner,  was  one  day  dashed  to  pieces 
in  1845  by  a  crank  named  Lloyd,  a  visitor  to  the 
museum.  Fortunately  the  hundreds  of  fragments 
were  immediately  gathered  up  and  placed  in  the 
hands  of  the  official  restorer,  a  Mr.  Doubleday,  who 
accomplished  the  remarkable  feat,  aided  by  an  en- 
graving of  the  vase  by  Cipriani  and  Bartolozzi  in 
1786,  and  especially  by  a  remarkable  copy  of  the 
vase  which  Josiah  Wedgwood  had  made. 

Fifty  such  copies  were  originally  made  for  sub- 
scribers at  fifty  guineas  each,  and  all  were  disposed 
of.  These  first  copies  are  among  the  rarest  and 
loveliest  examples  of  Wedgwood's  wares.  As  the 
original  molds  survived,  recent  copies  have  been 
made,  with  black  and  also  with  dark-blue  grounds. 
While  Wedgwood's  copies  were  remarkable  ceramic 
achievements,  they  may  seem  to  lack  the  intrinsic 
beauty  of  the  original  material,  but  they  are  pleasing 
and  fine  in  themselves. 

At  the  sale,  in  1786,  of  the  antiques  and  curios 
collected  by   the   Duchess   of   Portland,   her  son, 

[131] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

then  duke,  was  present  in  the  auction  room  as  a  bid- 
der. Wedgwood  was  bidding  on  the  Portland  Vase 
and  the  price  went  soaring  up.  Finally  the  duke 
discovered  that  Wedgwood's  sole  reason  for  desiring 
the  vase  was  to  reproduce  it.  On  condition  that  he 
was  to  have  one  of  the  copies,  free  of  charge,  the 
duke  offered  to  lend  Wedgwood  the  treasure  if 
Wedgwood  would  withdraw  from  the  competition 
and  allow  the  duke  to  bid  it  in.  The  matter  was 
amicably  arranged,  and  the  vase  was  handed  to 
Wedgwood  for  the  purpose  stipulated.  He  him- 
self wrote : 

I  cannot  sufficiently  express  my  obligation  to  his  Grace, 
the  Duke  of  Portland,  for  his  entrusting  this  inestimable 
jewel  to  my  care,  and  continuing  it  so  long — more  than 
twelve  months — in  my  hands,  without  which  it  would  have 
been  impossible  to  do  any  tolerate  justice  to  this  rare  work 
of  art.  I  have  now  some  reason  to  flatter  myself  with  the 
hope  of  producing  in  a  short  time  a  copy  which  will  not  be 
unworthy  the  public  notice. 

Wedgwood  is  said  to  have  looked  upon  his  copy 
of  the  Portland  Vase  as  his  masterpiece. 

Those  who  have  been  fortunate  enough  to  see  the 
original  vase  in  the  British  Museum — where,  re- 
stored, it  is  now  safely  guarded  in  the  Gem  Room — 
will  appreciate  how  much  can  be  accomplished  in 
the  hands  of  a  skilful  mender  and  restorer,  and  will 

[132] 


SAVING  THE  PIECES 

realize,  too,  the  value  of  "saving  the  pieces"  when 
accident  appears  to  have  destroyed  a  rare  specimen 
of  pottery,  porcelain,  or  glass. 


[133I 


CHAPTER  XIX 

LOUNGING    FURNITURE 

SHOULD  any  one  with  a  taste  for  antique 
furniture  also  find  interest  in  old-fashioned 
verse,  he  might  some  day  come  across  Cow- 
per's  lay  which  elegantly  hints  at  the  evolution  of 
lounging-furniture,  culminating  in  the  development 
of  the  delectable  sofa.  I  suppose  few  read  old 
Cowper  nowadays.  I  myself  confess  to  no  propen- 
sity in  this  direction  beyond  a  liking  for  the  ballad 
of  "John  Gilpin."  Poor,  gentle,  melancholy  Cow- 
per, who  tamed  hares  for  diversion  and  gave  to  Eng- 
lish poetry  of  the  late  eighteenth  century  a  cast  more 
earnest  and  more  simple  than  had  come  to  be  its 
wont  before  his  pen  expressed  his  gift!  But  Cow- 
per, mild  and  quiet  though  he  was,  had  yet  a  keen 
sense  of  humor.  This  crept  into  certain  lines  that 
the  lover  of  antique  furniture  may  enjoy  having 
brought  to  his  notice : 

Ingenious  fancy,  never  better  pleased 

Than  when  employed  to  accommodate  the  fair. 

Heard  the  sweet  moan  with  pity  and  devised 

[134] 


LOUNGING  FURNITURE 

The  soft  SETTEE,  one  elbow  at  each  end 

And  in  the  midst  an  elbow,  it  received 

United,  yet  divided,  twain  at  once. 

So  sit  two  kings  of  Brentford  on  one  throne; 

And  so  two  citizens  who  take  the  air. 

Close  packed  and  smiling  in  a  chaise  and  one, 

But  relaxation  of  the  languid  frame. 

By  soft  recumbency  of  outstretched  limbs. 

Was  bliss  reserved  for  happier  days ;  so  slow 

The  growth  of  what  is  excellent,  so  hard 

To  attain  perfection  in  this  nether  world 

Thus,  first  necessity  invented  stools. 

Convenience  next  suggested  elbow  chairs. 

And  luxury  the  accomplised  sofa  last. 

The  couch  has  an  ancient  and  classical  ancestry. 
The  Egyptians,  the  Greeks,  and  the  Romans  utilized 
it  extensively.  The  settee  evolved  from  the  double 
chair — love-seat,  it  was  often  called — while  the  "ac- 
complished" sofa  combined,  or  was  supposed  to  com- 
bine, all  the  advantages  and  virtues  of  couch  and 
settee,  not  omitting  the  attractiveness  of  the  love- 
seat!  An  understanding  of  these  relationship  adds 
not  a  little  to  the  interest  of  collecting. 

The  collector  will  not  concern  himself  with  the 
couches  of  the  ancients,  but  will  come  within  the 
early  English  forms  of  this  article  of  furniture.  The 
name  "day-bed"  was  earlier  used  for  English  couch 
furniture   of   the   Jacobean   period    (1603-1688). 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

The  seventeenth-century  day-bed  allowed  a  person 
to  recline  comfortably  at  full  length.  It  was  either 
laced  or  caned  for  cushioning.  At  one  end  the  head- 
piece sloped  back.  At  first  this  head-piece  appears 
to  have  been  stationary,  but  no  doubt  comfort  soon 
suggested  the  later  movable  head-piece — a  device 
more  popular  with  the  English  than  with  the  conti- 
nental makers  of  day-beds  or  couches,  as  far  as  I  have 
been  able  to  discover. 

In  height  the  best  day-beds  were  slightly  lower 
than  chair  seats.  The  Jacobean  pieces  have  the 
characteristic  carved  or  turned  legs.  Undoubtedly 
many  of  these  couches  found  their  way  to  the  colonies 
during  the  early  period  of  American  history.  Cap- 
tain William  Tinge  (1653)  had  inventoried  such  a 
couch,  and  a  cane-bottomed  one  belonged  to  the 
Bulkelys  and  is  now  in  the  Antiquarian  Society,  Con-' 
cord,  Massachusetts.  John  Cotton  (1652)  was  an- 
other early  colonial  couch-owner,  and  one  might  call 
attention  to  many  others  who  made  mention  of  such 
household  objects  in  their  carefully  drawn  inven- 
tories now  preserved  to  us  by  the  various  antiquarian 
societies  throughout  the  country. 

The  couches  of  the  William  and  Mary  period 
(1688-1702)  conformed  to  the  simpler  forms  that 
succeeded  the  Jacobean  carved  furniture.     Not  only 

[136] 


Courtesy  Metropolitan  Museum   of  Art 

16th  Century  Venetian  Glass  Covered  Cup,  Skillfully  Restored  by  an 
Expert  Mender 


Double    Chair-Back    Settee,    Chippendale,    1735-175'v 


Settee,  Adam  Style 


*^^^lBir^r^fBlf^*^^^^^''''^^^^i^  /J^W^u 

m^^ 

Courtesy  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 

Sofa   of   the   William   and    Mary   Period 


LOUNGING  FURNITURE 

were  the  rarer  woods  employed  in  their  manufacture, 
but  as  the  couch  had  come  to  be  looked  upon  as  a 
necessity  in  the  cottage  as  well  as  in  the  mansion,  the 
more  ordinary  woods  were  utilized  also.  Many  of 
these  couches  were  exported  to  the  American 
colonies,  which,  in  their  turn  copied  their  forms  and 
otherwise  adopted  them.  Upholstered  couches  now 
began  to  come  more  commonly  into  use  than  the 
earlier  couches,  which  were  designed  to  be  fitted  with 
cushioned  seats. 

During  the  period  of  Queen  Anne  (1702-1714) 
the  houses  of  the  rich  were,  as  a  rule,  beset  by  ultra- 
decorative  fashions  and  in  them  luxury  was  expressed 
in  much  of  the  furniture  as  well  as  in  other  furnish- 
ings. However,  such  delightful  specimens  of  the 
walnut  furniture  of  the  period  exist — simple,  ele- 
gant, and  truly  beautiful  in  line — that  we  may  rest 
assured  that  good  taste  was  enjoyed  in  the  homes  of 
the  middle  classes.  Couches  of  this  period  will 
therefore  be  found  to  reflect  the  extremes. 

The  cabriole  leg,  the  leading  characteristic  of 
Queen  Anne  furniture,  soon  made  its  appearance  in 
the  couch  support. 

Upholstery  became  more  popular  than  ever,  as 
enormous  quantities  of  silks  and  velvets  were  being 
produced    during    Anne's     reign.     Chintzes,     and 

[137] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

printed  cottons,  too,  were  in  demand  for  couch 
covers.  Lacquered  couches  and  marqueterie  couches 
were  also  in  vogue  during  this  reign,  but  few  of  these 
appear  to  have  survived,  and  such  as  have  are  treas- 
ured accordingly. 

About  1720 — two  years  after  Anne's  death — ma- 
hogany came  into  general  use  in  furniture-making. 
Cabinet-makers  lost  no  time  in  employing  this  wood 
in  the  making  of  couches.  Seven  years  after  this, 
Thomas  Chippendale  and  his  father  were  established 
in  London.  In  1749  Chippendale  opened  his  con- 
duit Street  shop  in  the  Longacre  section.  Here  he 
worked  until  his  removal  to  St.  Martin's  Lane.  A 
year  after,  in  1754,  he  brought  out  his  famous  book, 
"The  Gentleman  and  Cabinet-Makers'  Director." 

The  couches  were  being  supplanted  to  great  extent 
by  the  sofa  during  the  time  of  the  Georges,  in  which 
Chippendale  lived,  but  such  couches  as  remain  show 
the  various  Chippendale  lines.  The  brothers  Adam 
(1672-1792),  following  their  taste  for  Italian 
things,  and  designing  for  lighter  woods  and  forms, 
gave  more  attention  to  the  couch,  perhaps,  than  Chip- 
pendale had  done.  Unlike  the  Chippendale  couches, 
the  Adam  couches  were  without  the  end  supports. 
George  Hepplewhite,  who  died  in  1786,  gave  to  Eng- 
lish furniture  a  well-defined  style.     The  first  edition 

[138] 


LOUNGING  FURNITURE 

of  "The  Cabinet  Maker  and  Upholsterer's  Guide" 
was  published  by  his  widow,  Alice  Hepplewhite,  in 
1788.  Hepplewhite,  as  had  the  brothers  Adam, 
came  strongly  under  the  influence  of  the  classic. 
Hepplewhite  couches  employ  an  end  such  as  that 
which  upholstered  sofas  had  suggested.  They  also 
received  inspiration  from  the  French  furniture  of  the 
time.  In  his  book  Hepplewhite  gives  on  Plate 
XXXII,  "Two  designs  of  couches  or  what  the 
French  call  Peche  Mortel''  It  has  not  been  my 
good  fortune  to  come  across  a  Sheraton  couch  in  the 
strict  sense  of  the  word,  though  I  presume  such  were 
made  by  Thomas  Sheraton  (1750-1906).  His 
"Cabinet-maker  and  Upholsterer's  Drawing  Book" 
first  appeared  in  1791 ;  but  it  concerned  itself  more 
with  settees  than  with  dwelling  particularly  on  true 
couch  designs. 

The  couches  of  the  French  periods — Louis  XIV 
(1643-1715),  Louis  XV  (1715-1774),  Louis  XVI 
(1774-1793),  and  the  Empire  (1792-1830) — all 
follow  the  well-known  lines  of  these  Louis  Quatorze, 
Louis  Quinze,  Louis  Seize,  and  Empire  styles,  and  it 
will  not  be  necessary  here  to  go  into  detail  concerning 
them.  The  English  and  American  cabinet-makers 
of  the  years  1792  to  1830  adapted  French  Empire 
styles  and  as  a  result  produced  furniture  which  we 

[139] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

may  designate  as  English  Empire  or  American  Em- 
pire, as  the  case  may  be. 

The  settee  of  the  Jacobean  period  was  a  develop- 
ment of  the  double  chair  or  love-seat.  It  followed 
the  general  styles  of  the  period  in  legs  and  stretchers. 
The  back  usually  was  upholstered.  It  was  not  in 
general  use  until  walnut  had  come  to  supersede  oak. 
For  this  reason  the  Jacobean  settees  are  for  greater 
part  of  walnut. 

The  William  and  Mary  period  settees  found  the 
double  chair  back  in  favor,  and  comfortable  indeed 
were  these  settees,  many  of  them  being  provided  with 
squab  cushions  in  addition  to  their  upholstered  seats, 
backs,  and  ends.  The  William  and  Mary  settees 
were  somewhat  shorter  than  the  generously  long 
settees  of  the  Jacobean  period. 

Queen  Anne  settees  were  designed  with  straight 
backs,  these  backs  doing  away  with  the  double-hoop 
backs  of  the  settees  of  the  reign  that  preceded 
Anne*s.  These  backs  were  considerably  lower,  and, 
as  with  the  couches,  the  cabriole  leg  formed  a  dis- 
tinctive characteristic.  In  the  Queen  Anne  settees 
of  a  later  time  the  double  back  without  upholstery 
came  in  again.  The  seats  of  these  settees  were 
depended  upon  for  occasional  use  at  the  back. 

Chippendale's  settees  followed  the  lines  of  his  de- 
[140] 


LOUNGING  FURNITURE 

signs  for  chairs.  His  window-seats  did  likewise. 
Colonel  Wentworth's  "Chinese  Settee"  of  the  Chip- 
pendale style  is  now  in  the  Ladd  House  at  Ports- 
mouth, New  Hampshire. 

Very  elegant  indeed  were  the  settees  and  the  win- 
dow-seats of  the  brothers  Adam.  Both  caincided  in 
lines  with  Adam  chairs.  The  window-seats,  though 
so  often  following  Chippendale  forms,  were  a  refine- 
ment of  these  latter.  They  were  supported  by  four 
or  by  six  legs,  usually,  though  several  window-seats 
of  Adam  style  have  eight  legs.  These  settees  bear 
the  characteristic  fluting  on  the  front  rail. 

The  Hepplewhite  settees  are,  for  the  most  part, 
double  backs  or  triple  backs  and  follow  in  design  the 
chair  styles  of  this  type.  A  Hepplewhite  settee  of 
1780  upholstered  in  silk  brocade  has  the  vase  detail 
in  the  arm-post  and  the  legs  are  turned  and  reeded. 
Other  Hepplewhite  settees  were  cane-seated  and 
cushioned,  and  with  these  squab  cushions  were  used. 

Sheraton  himself  tells  us  that  cane- work  as  applied 
to  furniture  again  came  into  favor  with  cabinet- 
makers about  the  year  1773.  A  very  fine  Sheraton 
two-back  settee  painted  with  medallions  by  Angelica 
Kauffmann  is  extant  to  test  the  skill  of  the 
eighteenth-century  furniture-maker  in  the  reintro- 
duction  of  the  use  of  cane  for  seating,  and  for  the 

[141] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

backs.  Some  of  the  Sheraton  settees  were  up- 
holstered and  some  were  designed  for  cushion  cover- 
ings. 

The  settees  of  the  various  French  periods  followed 
the  general  chair-furniture  lines  in  their  styles,  as 
did  the  settees  of  the  English  and  the  American  Em- 
pire styles. 

"Ingenious  fancy"  now  brings  us  again  to  the  "ac- 
complished sofa."  The  settees  and  love-seats  of  the 
Jacobeans,  and  the  couches  that  had  long  preceded 
even  them,  united  in  the  achievement  that  Cowper 
immortalizes  and  which  no  early  Victorian  novelist 
could  have  dispensed  with  in  creating  his  "atmos- 
phere." The  sofas  of  William  and  Mary  and  of 
Queen  Anne  were  expanded  and  upholstered  settees 
in  effect.  Chippendale  devoted  much  attention  to 
the  sofa  and  came  to  use  rolled-over  arms  in  the 
larger  one.  Several  of  these  are  illustrated  in  his 
"Gentleman  and  Cabinet-Makers'  Director,"  already 
referred  to.  Plate  xxx  shows  two  such  sofas,  and 
that  on  Plate  xxxi  is  described  by  him  as  follows : 

A  Design  of  a  Sofa  for  a  grand  Apartment,  and  will  re- 
quire a  great  Care  in  the  Execution,  to  make  the  several 
Parts  come  in  such  a  Manner,  that  all  the  Ornaments  join 
without  the  least  Fault;  and  if  the  Embossments  all  along 
arc  rightly  managed,  and  gilt  with  burnished  Gold,  the 
whole  will  have  a  noble  Appearance.     The  Carving  at  the 

[142] 


LOUNGING  FURNITURE 

Toe  is  the  Emblem  of  Watchfulness,  Assiduity,  and  Rest. 
The  Pillows  and  Cushions  must  not  be  omitted,  though  they 
are  not  in  the  Design.  The  Dimensions  are  nine  Feet  long 
without  the  Scrolls;  the  broadest  Part  of  the  Seat,  from 
Front  to  Back,  two  Feet,  six  Inches ;  the  Height  of  the  Back 
from  the  Seat,  three  Feet,  six  Inches;  and  the  Height  of 
the  Seat  one  Foot,  two  Inches,  without  Casters.  I  would 
advise  workmen  to  make  a  Model  of  it  at  large,  before  he 
begins  to  execute  it. 

The  Adam  sofas  closely  fall  in  with  the  general 
features  of  the  Adam  style,  and  the  same  may  be  said 
of  the  sofas  of  Hepplewhite  and  Sheraton.  Hep- 
plewhite  in  his  book  tells  us  that  the  dimensions  of 
sofas  "should  vary  according  to  the  size  of  the  room, 
but  the  proportion  in  general  use  is,  length  between 
6  and  7  feet ;  depth  about  30  inches ;  heighth  of  the 
seat  frame  14  inches;  total  in  the  back,  3  feet  1  inch. 
The  woodwork  should  be  either  Mahogany  or  ja- 
panned to  suit  the  chairs  in  the  room,  and  the  cover- 
ing must  match  that  of  the  chairs."  Four  designs  of 
sofas  appear  in  Hepplewhite's  book.  Plate  27 
therein  shows  a  confidante.     Of  this  he  says : 

This  piece  of  furniture  is  of  French  origin,  and  is  in  pretty 
general  request  for  large  and  spacious  suites  of  apartments. 
An  elegant  drawing-room  with  modern  furniture  is  scarce 
complete  without  a  confidante;  the  extent  of  which  may  be 
about  9  feet,  subject  to  the  same  regulations  as  sofas.  This 
piece  of  furniture  is  sometimes  so  constructed  that  the  ends 

[143] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

take  away  and  leave  a  regular  sofa;  the  ends  may  be  used 
as  Barjier  chairs. 

Of  the  Duchesse  sofa  Hepplewhite  says : 

This  piece  of  furniture  is  also  derived  from  the  French. 
Two  Barjier  chairs  of  proper  construction,  with  a  stool  in 
the  middle,  form  the  Duchesse,  which  is  allotted  to  large 
and  spacious  ante-rooms ;  the  covering  may  be  various  as 
also  the  framework,  and  made  from  six  to  eight  feet  long. 
The  stuffing  may  be  of  the  round  manner  as  shown  in  the 
drawing,  or  low-stuffed  with  a  loose  squab  or  bordered 
cushion  fitted  to  each  part;  with  a  duplicate  linen  cover  to 
cover  the  whole,  or  each  part  separately.  Confidantes,  sofas 
and  chairs  may  be  stuffed  in  the  same  manner. 

In  the  rooms  of  the  Antiquarian  Society,  Concord, 
Massachusetts,  is  a  sofa  which  once  belonged  to 
Samuel  Barron  and  which  shows  mixed  Hepplewhite 
and  Sheraton  characteristics. 

In  Girard  College,  Philadelphia,  one  may  see  a 
Sheraton  sofa  that  once  belonged  to  Stephen  Girard, 
the  founder.  Sheraton  himself  describes  one  of  his 
own  sofas  as  follows : 

A  sofa  done  in  white  and  gold,  or  japanned.  Four  loose 
cushions  are  placed  at  the  back.  They  serve  at  times  for 
bolsters,  being  placed  against  the  arms  to  loll  against.  The 
seat  is  stuffed  up  in  front  about  three  inches  high  above  the 
rail,  denoted  by  the  figure  of  a  sprig  running  lengthwise; 
all  above  that  is  a  squab,  which  may  be  taken  off  occasion- 
ally. 

[144] 


LOUNGING  FURNITURE 

Sheraton  also  tells  of  the  Turkey  sofa  "introduced 
into  the  most  fashionable  homes  as  a  novelty,  an  in- 
vention of  the  Turkish  mode  of  sitting.  They  are, 
therefore,  made  very  low,  scarcely  exceeding  a  foot 
to  the  upper  side  of  the  cushion.  The  frame  may 
be  made  of  beach,  and  must  be  webbed  and  strained 
with  canvas  to  support  the  cushions." 

It  would  be  interesting  to  go  on  dwelling  upon  a 
subject  so  rich  in  lore,  but  I  fear,  so  little  studied. 
The  author  has  generously  refrained  from  the  har- 
rowing mention  of  haircloth,  as  he  imagines  there  is 
little  he  could  add  to  a  subject  that  all  readers  are 
probably  too  familiar  with  already. 


[145] 


CHAPTER  XX 

SHEFFIELD    PLATE 

EVERY  one  is  familiar  with  the  name  "Shef- 
field Plate,"  and  many  have  a  vague  idea  as 
to  what,  superficially,  marks  its  distinction; 
there  are  fewer,  however,  who  know  its  story.  It  is 
interesting.  A  few  years  prior  to  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century — 1742  is  the  generally  accepted 
date — there  lived  in  a  little  house  on  Sycamore  Hill 
in  the  English  town  of  Sheffield  an  ingenious  me- 
chanic, Thomas  Bolsover  by  name.  His  knife, 
which  had  a  handle  made  partly  of  silver  and  partly 
of  copper,  had  been  broken,  and  one  day  in  a  leisure 
moment  Bolsover  took  it  to  his  attic  room  to  repair 
it  at  the  little  work-bench  he  had  fixed  up  there.  In 
the  course  of  this  operation  an  unusual  accident 
brought  about  the  fusing  of  the  copper  and  silver 
parts  of  the  knife-handle.  To  Bolsover's  surprise  he 
found  the  metals  had  cohered,  forming  a  copper  basis 
with  a  surface  of  silver. 

To  a  stupid  mechanic  this  would  have  given  rise 
to   no   reflection,    or   only   to    futile    and   passing 

[146] 


SHEFFIELD  PLATE 

curiosity.  To  Bolsover  it  at  once  brought  the  reflec- 
tion that  a  process  developed  by  experiment  from  the 
results  of  this  accident  would  be  of  definite  utility. 
In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  value  of  silver  at  that 
time  was  three  times  what  it  is  to-day,  the  discovery 
of  a  substitute  for  the  solid  precious  metal  was  of 
great  commercial  importance. 

Bolsover  was  a  cutler  by  trade  and  steel-working 
was  Sheffield's  chief  industry.  So  little  silver-work- 
ing had  been  attempted  in  the  town  that  there  was 
not  even  an  assay  office  there;  in  fact,  one  was  not 
established  until  some  thirty  years  subsequent  to  Bol- 
sover's  discovery  and  inventions.  Although  Bol- 
sover was  only  a  struggling  workman,  he  had  the 
good  fortune  of  interesting  a  Mr.  Pegge  of  Beau- 
chief,  who  furnished  him  with  the  capital  to  set  up  a 
manufactory  of  articles  produced  by  the  new  process. 
Buttons,  buckles,  snuff-boxes,  and  knife-handles  were 
turned  out  from  the  new  shops  on  Baker's  Hill. 
This  business  Bolsover  conducted  in  conjunction 
with  one,  Joseph  Wilson.  During  this  period  Bol- 
sover was  probably  so  concerned  with  his  work  and 
the  manufacture  of  the  small  articles  mentioned  that 
it  never  occurred  to  him  that  his  process  was  capable 
of  greater  developments.  Changing  conditions  open 
new  channels  that  are  to  be  anticipated  only  by 

[147] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

imaginative  minds.  Bolsover's  mind  was,  I  think, 
less  imaginative  than  of  a  generally  intelligent  and 
practical  turn.  It  was  sufficient  for  him,  in  all  prob- 
ability, that  he  had  stumbled  on  material  which 
would  replace  silver  in  the  manufacture  of  the  small 
articles  that  appealed  to  his  commercial  instinct. 

The  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  a  period 
in  which  only  the  very  well-to-do  could  afford 
articles  of  silver  for  household  use.  The  middle 
class  still  contented  itself  with  pewter.  It  ap- 
parently remained  for  Joseph  Hancock,  a  brazier 
who  had  been  in  Bolsover's  employ,  to  realize  the 
possibilities  of  Bolsover's  copper  rolled-plate  pro- 
cess (as  it  was  then  and  for  a  long  time  afterward 
called),  as  a  suitable  material  for  silverware.  Han- 
cock produced  tea-pots,  coffee-pots,  candlesticks, 
tankards,  waiters,  and  so  on. 

It  may  seem  strange  that  neither  Bolsover  nor 
Hancock  followed  the  new  industry  for  long.  As 
astute  business  men,  they  might  be  expected  to  have 
anticipated  the  vogue  that  the  copper  rolled  plate  was 
later  to  enjoy.  On  the  other  hand,  I  think  one 
should  take  into  consideration  the  fact  that  the  well- 
to-do  of  the  day  sought  no  silver  substitutes,  and  that 
on  the  tables  of  the  middle  class  such  things  as 
cpergnes,     bread-baskets,     and    cake-baskets     were 

[148] 


SHEFFIELD  PLATE 

hardly  to  be  found  before  1750,  while  coffee-pots 
and  milk-jugs  were  rare  even  in  silver,  and  tea-kettles 
and  tea-urns  even  more  so.  As  these  various  articles 
came  into  more  extended  use  in  silver  form,  they 
suggested  to  the  immediate  followers  of  Bolsover  and 
Hancock  the  greater  commercial  field  that  would 
open  to  their  manufacture  in  copper  rolled  plate. 
Still  the  old  Tudor  &  Leader  firm,  founded  by  Dr. 
Sherburn  in  1758  and  existing  till  1814,  a  firm  ad- 
vertising "the  best  wrought  silver  plate,"  devoted 
most  of  its  attention  to  the  making  of  buttons  and 
snuff-boxes. 

Authorities  generally  assign  to  about  1760  the 
earliest  table  pieces,  except  those  (and  they  were 
very  few)  which  Hancock  produced.  After  this 
time  the  copper  rolled  plate,  the  manufacture  of 
which  Bolsover  and  Hancock  found  less  remunera- 
tive than  the  metal  rolling  business  they  entered,  de- 
veloped rapidly.  By  1774  there  were  some  sixteen 
firms  engaged  in  the  hollow-ware  making  in  Shef- 
field alone,  and  Boulton  had  established  a  factory 
for  copper  rolled  plate  in  Birmingham.  We  may 
assume  that  Sheffield  plate,  as  the  ware  came  to  be 
called  then,  became  widely  popular,  for  Ashworth, 
Ellis,  Wilson,  and  Hawksly  opened  branches  away 
from  Sheffield — in   Paris   and   in   Dublin.     There 

[149] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

were,  of  course,  many  improvements  in  Sheffield 
plate,  such  as  the  method  of  preparing  for  and  apply- 
ing the  ornamental  silver  edges  which  was  under  the 
patents  of  Mr.  Roberts  of  Roberts  &  Cadman  in 
1824. 

To  another  discovery  we  may  credit  the  decline  of 
the  fine  copper  rolled  plate  after  1840.  It  seems 
that  a  medical  student,  Wright  by  name,  studying 
with  Dr.  Shearman  of  Rotherham,  near  Sheffield, 
discovered  a  process  of  depositing  silver  on  copper 
by  electro-decomposition.  He  sold  his  discovery  to 
Messrs.  Elkington  in  Birmingham,  who  took  out 
patents,  March  25,  1840.  Those  who  have  not 
studied  the  matter  usually  rest  under  the  impression 
that  Sheffield  plate,  as  collectors  know  it,  is  an  elec- 
troplated ware.  On  the  contrary,  although  many  of 
the  beautiful  original  Sheffield-plate  forms  have  been 
imitated  in  electroplated  articles,  it  is  not  the  latter 
that  hold  a  collector's  interest.  Moreover,  the  true 
Sheffield  plate  so  treasured  to-day  has  the  silver 
rolled  on  copper  and  not  on  nickel  or  white  metal. 
I  suppose  tons  of  machine-made  copper  articles,  elec- 
troplated, pass  to-day  with  the  unknowning  as  true 
Sheffield  plate.  Such  of  these  as  imitate  the  fine 
old  forms  that  have  been  unsurpassed  are  certainly 
preferable  to  other  modern  wares  that  lack  the  beauty 

[150] 


SHEFFIELD  PLATE 

of  form  and  the  traditions  of  design.  However,  the 
electroplated  wares  should  be  declared  such,  and 
should  not  be  fabricated  to  deceive. 

Another  point  is  that  the  cost  of  making  copper 
rolled  plate  is  twice  the  cost  of  making  electroplate. 
It  is,  I  think,  better  for  the  home  furnisher  to  pay 
twice  as  much  for  a  few  excellent  things  than  to  have 
twice  as  many  inferior  ones  at  the  same  price. 
Modern  Sheffield  plate — that  is  to  say,  the  rolled 
plate  of  to-day — is  nearly  all  worth  having.  The 
old  Sheffield  pattern-books  and  many  of  the  dies  for 
the  forms  survived  the  capricious  fortune  that  for  so 
many  years  led  the  older  art  to  give  way  to  the  com- 
mercial aspect  of  electroplate.  Now,  electroplating 
does  not  wear  well  unless  it  is  done  on  nickel ;  a  hard 
copper  basis,  moreover,  enhances  the  beauty  of  the 
silver  coating,  and  brings  out  a  quality  which  nickel 
and  white  metal  do  not. 

As  it  was  not  until  1784  that  Parliament  repealed 
the  act  that  prohibited  marking  plated  ware,  no 
Sheffield  plate  that  is  genuine  is  found  with  a  mark 
antedating  1784.  From  1784,  to,  say,  1880,  Shef- 
field plate  may  bear  mark  and  maker's  name  beside 
it.  The  firm  of  W.  Green  &  Co.  was  the  first  to 
have  its  mark  and  name  registered  for  Sheffield 
plate;  this  was  September  8,  1784.     However,  the 

[151] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

collector  iinlds  pieces  bearing  names  and  marks  to- 
gether very  rare.  Marks  are  generally  so  incon- 
spicuously placed  as  often  to  be  missed  even  when 
they  do  occur.  Careful  examination  is  necessary  to 
discover  them. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  genuine  Shef- 
field-plate metal  consisted  of  silver  and  copper  sheets 
inseparably  joined  and  pressed  out  to  the  required 
thinness  by  being  run  cold  through  rollers.  The 
metal  was  then  cut  and  shaped  by  hand-hammering 
into  the  forms  desired.  Electroplated  ware  consists 
of  a  baser  metal  form  already  shaped  before  being 
coated  with  silver  in  galvanic  solution.  The  posses- 
sor of  any  pieces  of  genuine  Sheffield  plate  will  sub- 
ject them  to  ruin  if  he  is,  at  any  time,  so  ill-advised 
as  to  have  them  replated.  Such  a  renovation  will 
utterly  destroy  the  beauty  that  intrinsically  resides 
with  even  worn  pieces  of  Sheffield  plate  that  show 
copper  traces. 


[152] 


Sheffield   Plate  Tray  and   Spoonholder 


Courtesy  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 

Sheffield  Plate  Teapots  and  Coffee  Pot 


Straw   Marqueterie   Box,   French,    18th   Centvxry 


Courtesy  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 

Straw  Marqueterie  Box,   English,   l7th  Century 


CHAPTER  XXI 

STRAW    MARQUETERIE 

ON  traveling  to  the  Adriatic  coast  some  years 
ago,  I  stopped  for  several  days  in  a  little 
Italian  town  not  far  from  Ancona.  I  sup- 
pose few  visitors  have  ever  alighted  there;  at  least 
that  is  the  impression  I  got  from  the  profuse  welcome 
accorded  me  at  the  primitive  alhergo  where  I  put  up. 
Just  why  even  the  slow-creeping  trains  of  the  Marche 
ever  bothered  to  stop  here  at  all  I  have  yet  to  deter- 
mine. With  myself  I  seem  to  have  established  a 
precedent.  No  errand  other  than  that  of  the  spirit 
took  me  there.  It  all  happened  because,  when 
journeying  eastward,  I  had  asked  a  fellow-traveler 
what  there  was  of  interest  in  this  town,  and,  then, 
why  the  train  made  so  short  a  stop. 

"No  one  ever  gets  out  here,"  he  explained;  "there 
is  nothing  to  see." 

From  that  moment  my  curiosity  was  aroused,  for 
experience  has  taught  me  that  the  most  interesting 
places  are  those  which  most  people  find  uninteresting. 

[153] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

One  of  the  things  I  found  in  this  little  town  will, 
perhaps,  dear  reader,  interest  you,  and  so  I  will  make 
mention  of  it  as  introduction  to  my  subject.  The 
room  to  which  I  was  assigned  by  my  host  of  the  inn 
was,  I  have  reason  to  believe,  the  chambre  de  luxe  of 
the  country-side.  The  high  beamed  ceiling  was 
painted  much  after  the  manner  of  the  great  ceiling 
of  the  Florentine  church  of  San  Miniato  al  Monte, 
although  I  saw  nothing  of  it  all  by  the  flickering 
candle  which  lighted  my  arrival  at  this  medieval 
hostelry.  In  the  morning  a  burst  of  golden  sunlight 
awakened  me,  and  in  through  the  windows  was 
wafted  the  fragrance  of  the  grape  flowers  in  blossom 
outside.  My  sleepy  eyes  followed  the  walls  around. 
And  then  opened  wide  on  beholding  a  quaintly 
framed  canvas  of  beautiful  freshness,  the  picture  of 
a  group  of  saints. 

Jumping  out  of  bed  and  going  over  to  inspect  the 
painting,  I  observed  on  an  old  marqueterie  secretaire 
which  stood  just  below  it  an  array  of  curious,  golden- 
hued  objects.  On  closer  examination  I  found  some 
to  be  boxes,  some  jewel-caskets,  others  yarn-con- 
tainers, while  needle-cases,  frames,  book-covers  and 
the  like  completed  this  odd  assemblage  of  curious 
antiques.  Then  I  discovered  that  they  were  all  ex- 
amples of  straw  marqueterie,  but  finer,  of  them,  than 

[154] 


STRAW  MARQUETERIE 

any  pieces  of  the  sort  that  ever  before  had  happened 
to  come  to  my  attention. 

I  suppose  being  a  collector  makes  one  a  discoverer. 
At  any  rate,  a  discovery  it  was,  and  I  asked  myself 
how  on  earth  these  things  happened  to  be  here. 
That  morning  my  host  explained. 

"All  these,"  said  he,  "I  have  been  collecting  as 
a  hobby  for  years — things  made  by  prisoners  of 
war,  interesting  and  worth  preserving.  The  inlaid 
straw  objects  are  but  part  of  what  I  have — ivories, 
carved  cocoanuts;  jewelry,  paper  models,  embroid- 
eries, and  so  on,  all  made  by  prisoners  of  war,  mostly 
in  Italy,  I  presume,  as  I  have  picked  them  up  here  in 
my  own  country  in  traveling  around.  I  would  not 
part  with  them  for  the  world !" 

This  declaration  dashed  my  hopes  to  the  ground, 
but  one  can  forgive  much  in  a  landlord  who  collects 
things  more  spiritual  than  rent,  and  a  landlord  in 
Italy  who  "travels  around"  also  commands  one's 
respect  for  his  ability  to  be  so  independent.  That  is 
why  I  listened  instead  of  bargaining,  and  in  that 
morning  I  learned  many  interesting  facts  about  my 
host's  unusual  collection.  Perhaps  there  were  few 
kindred  collecting  souls  in  the  neighborhood  who 
deigned  to  listen  as  sympathetically  as  I  did  or  who 
made  no  effect  to  conceal  an  enthusiasm  which  these 

[155] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

things  awakened  within  me.  At  any  rate,  the 
amiable  innkeeper  who  would  not  part  with  his 
treasures  for  the  world  proved  finally  willing  to 
sell  a  few  of  them  for  considerably  less  than  a 
hemisphere,  which  gave  me  a  chance  to  weave  tales 
of  my  own  in  the  years  that  were  to  follow. 

Dr.  John  Eliot  Hodgkin,  F.  S.  A.,  a  renowned 
English  antiquarian,  had  a  collection  of  some  eighty 
pieces  of  straw  marqueterie,  a  collection  exceeded  in 
extent  at  that  time  by  two  French  collection  only. 
Probably  not  over  a  hundred  pieces  of  straw  mar- 
queterie are  to  be  found  in  all  the  British  museums 
combined.  Dr.  Hodgkin' s  interesting  volumes  un- 
der the  title  of  "Rariora"  are,  unfortunately,  out  of 
print.  In  one  of  these  he  reproduced  some  of  the 
specimens  of  straw  marqueterie  in  his  own  extensive 
collection,  and  the  reader  who  wishes  further  to 
interest  himself  in  the  subject  is  referred  to  the  pages 
of  those  erudite  tomes,  which  he  may  be  fortunate 
enough  to  find  on  the  shelves  of  some  of  the  more 
important  art  libraries  in  America. 

In  Europe  the  earlier  centuries  brought  into  exist- 
ence many  small  arts  of  which  we  have  well  nigh 
forgotten  the  very  existence.  It  was  thus  these 
straw  marqueterie  objects  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
the  seventeenth  and  the  eighteenth,  objects  whose 

[•56] 


STRAW  MARQUETERIE 

form  of  decoration  is  so  rare  as  to  be  almost  unknown 
to  dealers  in  antiques  and  curios.  Indeed,  I  have 
failed  to  find  a  single  specimen  of  early  straw  mar- 
queterie  in  any  shop  in  America,  or  to  discover  any 
dealer  who  really  knew  anything  about  it. 

This  decoration,  composed  of  filaments  of  colored 
wheaten  or  oaten  straw  applied  to  small  cabinets,^ 
pictorial  panels,  mirror  frames,  caskets,  bookbind- 
ings, etuis,  bonbonnieres,  plaques,  etc.,  boasts  of  an 
early  origin.  Possibly  it  was  known  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  but  I  have  not  found  any  examples  that  can 
with  reasonable  precision  be  attributed  to  a  period 
earlier  than  the  first  quarter  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
In  certain  instances  the  straw  filaments  composing 
the  mosaics  or  marqueterie  covering  of  the  objects 
was  highly  colored  originally,  but  time  has  softened 
and  toned  them  down.  The  finest  specimens  of 
this  work  resemble  chiseled  gold,  and  nearly  all 
examples  of  straw  marqueterie  show  a  play  of  light 
on  the  grain  of  the  fabric  that  produces  the  most 
exquisite  effects  imaginable,  which  one  must  see 
really  to  appreciate. 

Very  crude  modern  Japanese  trays,  boxes,  etc.,  are 
technically  akin  to  this  old  marqueterie,  but  are  not 
worthy  to  be  classed  with  it  or  placed  near  these  rare 
old  European  specimens.     Indeed,  the  Oriental  ar- 

[157] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

tist-craftsmen  have  never  appeared  to  grasp  a  full 
realization  of  the  resources  of  straw  as  a  material 
for  producing  the  exquisite  effects  to  which  the  earlier 
European  workers  attained,  except  in  a  few  instances. 
This  seems  strange,  considering  the  ingenuity  of 
Oriental  craftsman.  The  European  artist-crafts- 
man appears  to  have  developed  the  art  independently 
of  Oriental  suggestion,  or  at  least  independently  of 
Oriental  influence. 

In  all  probability  straw  marqueterie  started  in  a 
humble  way  with  the  peasantry.  The  materials  for 
working  it  out  lay  at  hand  without  cost,  infinite  pa- 
tience being  all  that  was  required,  with  skill  and  in- 
herent taste  and  a  sense  of  design,  which  peasant  art 
invariably  exhibits.  Probably  the  early  Italians 
were  the  first  makers  of  objects  in  straw  marqueterie 
and  the  French  were  probably  the  next  ones  to  take 
it  up,  borrowing  the  art  from  the  Italians. 

As  no  straw-work  of  this  sort  is  being  made  in  Eu- 
rope to-day,  one  can  but  venture  to  guess  at  the  de- 
tails of  the  process.  Such  old  volumes  as  Barrow's 
"Dictionarium  Polygraphicum,"  and  the  "Hand- 
maid of  the  Arts,"  in  which  one  might  reasonably 
look  for  some  hint  on  the  subject,  are  strangely  neg- 
lectful of  the  matter,  which  leads  to  the  conclusion 
that  though  straw  marqueterie  was  at  one  time  one  of 

[158] 


STRAW  MARQUETERIE 

the  flourishing  small  arts  on  the  Continent,  it  was 
less  generally  known  in  England.  In  fact,  nearly- 
all  the  English  work  of  the  sort  dates  from  the 
eighteenth  century. 

In  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum  is  an  ingen- 
iously constructed  work-box  of  pine,  decorated  on 
the  outside  and  the  inside  with  colored  straw-work 
arranged  in  panels  containing  checkers,  diagonal 
lines,  and  other  devices.  The  front  is  fitted  with  a 
revolving  shutter,  behind  which  is  a  panel  orna- 
mented in  the  center  with  buildings  and  fitted  below 
with  a  small  drawer.  Below  the  shutter  is  a  larger 
drawer,  divided  into  four  lidded  compartment^s  two 
of  the  lids  being  of  glass;  under  this  drawer  is  an- 
other small  drawer.  At  the  top  of  the  box  is  a  lid 
fitted  inside  with  a  mirror  and  covering  two  com- 
partments with  hinged  lids.  The  word  "hope"  ap- 
pears on  both  the  front  and  the  back  of  the  box. 
There  are  four  turned  bone  handles  and  a  lozenge- 
shaped  lock-plate  of  the  same  material. 

In  the  author's  collection  is  a  cabinet  of  straw 
marqueterie,  measuring  8/^  inches  in  height,  9  inches 
in  breadth,  and  4%  inches  in  depth.  There  is  one 
wide,  deep  drawer  at  the  bottom,  above  which  six 
narrower,  shallower  drawers  are  placed  in  two  sec- 
tions of  three  each.     From  the  shape  of  the  handles, 

[159] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

the  proportion  of  the  cabinet,  the  quality  of  the  black 
lacquer  inside  finish  of  the  drawers,  and  the  design 
of  the  panel  across  the  bottom,  one  is  led  to  conclude 
that  this  is  an  uncommon  example  of  Japanese  work- 
manship. 

A  number  of  small  boxes  with  figure  subjects,  all 
carefully  and  wonderfully  worked  out  in  filaments 
of  colored  straw,  are  extant  to  attest  to  the  durability 
of  straw  marqueterie,  which  is  not  nearly  so  fragile 
as  its  name  suggests  it  to  be.  Some  of  these  were 
executed  by  French  prisoners  of  war  as  Norman 
Cross  in  1810. 

From  times  immemorial,  I  suppose,  war  prisoners 
who  have  not  been  enslaved  by  their  captors  but  have 
been  treated  without  barbarity  have  sought  to  en- 
lighten their  tedium  by  various  sorts  of  handicraft, 
exerting  to  the  utmost  their  ingenuity  in  the  matter 
of  tools  and  materials.  To-day  the  subject  is  one 
of  immediate  interest  to  us.  Already  have  art  ob- 
jects made  by  prisoners  of  war  interned  in  Holland 
and  in  Switzerland  reached  us.  In  time  they  will 
come  to  be  as  treasured  as  the  antiques  made  by  the 
prisoners  of  war  of  the  Napoleonic  period  and  of 
earlier  times.  To  catalogue  the  variety  of  such 
things  would  require  page  after  page.  Naturally, 
nearly  all  such  objects  are  "handy"  in  size  and  one 

[160] 


STRAW  MARQUETERIE 

does  not  look  for  particularly  large  specimens  of  war 
prisoners'  art  work.  One  begins  to  realize,  after  vis- 
iting the  convalescents'  ward  of  a  military  hospital, 
what  a  blessing  to  the  soldier  some  knowledge  of  an 
art  handicraft  may  be.  I  have  seen  several  mar- 
velous things  whittled  out  of  wood  by  prisoners  of 
war — bone  carvings,  beadwork,  jewelry — that  indi- 
cate the  godsend  the  work  must  be  to  the  soldier  pris- 
oner detained  in  the  enemy's  camp.  But  of  all  these 
objects  I  know  of  none  that  are  more  beautiful  than 
those  of  straw  marqueterie. 

I  do  not  know  where  the  art  originated.  Mr. 
Hodgkin  confessed  to  a  like  hiatus  in  his  knowledge 
of  the  subject.  However,  I  have  no  doubt  that  ar- 
tistic straw  inlaying  was  practised  in  the  Orient  at 
a  very  early  date.  Thence  it  may  have  been  brought 
into  Europe.  I  feel  sure  that  it  was  known  and 
practised  during  the  period  of  the  Renaissance  in 
Italy,  and  I  consider  the  old  Italian  examples  of  this 
craft  to  be  the  earliest  European  ones. 

This  early  Italian  straw  marqueterie  is  distin- 
guished by  its  golden  hues,  suggesting  the  richness  of 
Venetian  paintings.  The  objects  to  be  covered  by 
the  artist  in  straw  were  of  various  materials,  such  as 
wood,  paper,  papier-mache,  cloth,  and  occasionally 
glass,  metal,  or  bone.     The  design,  pattern,  or  pic- 

[161] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

ture  was  worked  out  by  pasting  filaments  and  little 
sections  of  straw  (stained  to  various  colors)  on  the 
surfaces  of  the  objects  to  be  covered,  which  were 
then  varnished.  The  minuteness  of  some  of  this 
straw-work  is  extraordinary.  It  would  seem  to  have 
necessitated  the  use  of  a  glass  of  high  magnifying 
power  as  well  as  to  have  required  almost  super- 
human patience  and  ingenuity  to  put  it  together. 
Moreover,  these  early  pieces  in  straw  marqueterie 
were  so  faithfully  fabricated  that  they  have  come 
down  to  us  in  excellent  condition. 

I  imagine  the  French  learned  the  art  of  straw  mar- 
queterie from  their  Italian  cousins.  I  feel  sure  that 
the  Spanish  craftsmen  did.  At  any  rate,  French 
prisoners  of  war  have  shown  themselves  wonderfully 
proficient  in  this  art  in  the  past.  The  French  pris- 
oners of  the  Napoleonic  Wars  who  were  quartered 
in  England  were  prolific  in  their  output  of  this  sort. 
Numerous  tea-caddies  have  I  seen  from  their  hands, 
here  and  there  preserved  in  the  cottages  of  the  coun- 
try round  about  Peterborough.  At  near-by  Norman 
Cross  was  one  of  the  chief  camps  of  the  Napoleonic 
prisoners  of  war.  We  are  told  that  a  regular  mar- 
ket for  the  art  wares  made  by  French  prisoners  at 
Norman  Cross  was  held  daily  in  the  camp.  Perth 
was  another  prisoner-of-war  concentration  center  and 

[162] 


STRAW  MARQUETERIE 

contemporary  writers  tell  us  that  the  objects  made 
by  the  French  prisoners  there  were  of  a  finer  design 
and  quality  than  like  things  produced  by  the  Eng- 
lish townsmen,  in  consequence  of  which  there  was 
brisk  market  rivalry.  At  Dartmoor,  Stapleton,  Liv- 
erpool, and  Greenland  Valleyfield  the  French  war 
prisoners  exhibited  their  skill.  At  the  Liverpool 
prison  they  constructed  little  straw  marqueterie  cases 
to  contain  miniature  ships  and  like  articles. 

What  stories  the  objects  of  straw  marqueterie 
made  by  prisoners  of  war  could  tell  could  they  but 
speak!  What  silent  testimonies  of  grit,  patience, 
and  fortitude!  But  perhaps  we  may  be  glad  that 
we  do  not  know  all  they  might  tell,  for  to-day  has 
sorrow  enough  and  we  should  be  grateful  that  time 
has  been  kind  enough  to  leave  us  just  the  beauty  and 
not  the  life  details  of  these  objects  from  the  hands 
of  those  who  suffered  in  the  yesterdays  of  other  wars. 


1»63] 


CHAPTER  XXII 

CONSOLES 

AT  first  thought  it  would  appear  both  am- 
bitious and  somewhat  futile — this  hobby 
of  collecting  consoles.  But  that  depends 
on  how  you  consider  collecting  in  general;  on 
whether  you  realize  that  you  may  make  a  collection 
of  purely  practical  objects  or  of  curios  with  uncer- 
tain decorative  value.  For  both  of  these  are  prized 
by  the  collector.  Thus,  one  might  not  be  inclined 
to  consider  house  furnishings  as  collections  at  all. 
But  when  some  order  enters  into  their  selection  and 
arrangement,  they  virtually  become  collections,  just 
as,  on  the  other  hand,  an  aggregation  of  medals,  a 
cabinet  of  jade,  or  a  chest  of  Georgian  silver  can  be 
made  to  play  a  decorative  role  in  the  house  when  well 
placed.  It  would,  of  course,  be  absurd  to  expect 
a  cottage  to  provide  the  proper  setting  for  Louis 
XIV  consoles,  but  just  how  lovely  some  of  the  Adam 
console  tables  appear  in  the  home  of  moderate  as- 
pects can  well  be  understood. 

The  use  of  the  term  console  in  this  connection  has 

[164] 


CONSOLES 

been  a  matter  of  some  dispute.  It  is  reasonable  to 
suppose  that  it  was  borrowed,  because  of  the  bracket 
supports — as  distinguished  from  tables  with  four 
legs — from  the  French  architectural  term  console^  a 
bracket  support.  Since  the  idea  came  from  the 
French,  we  must  expect  to  find  some  of  the  earliest 
and  most  beautiful  consoles  in  French  period  furni- 
ture. Some  of  the  most  notable  ones  are  to  be  found 
in  the  great  museums  of  America.  Fortunate  it  is 
that  these  are  available  for  public  study;  for  many- 
modem  furniture-makers  have  been  able  to  reproduce 
with  fidelity  the  designs  of  these  wonderful  consoles. 
Collectors,  of  course,  do  not  primarily  seek  repro- 
ductions, but  many  of  the  foremost  among  them 
realize  that  where  originals  are  not  obtainable,  un- 
usually fine  reproductions  are  to  be  welcomed. 
The  desirability  lies  not  only  in  age  but  in  intrinsic 
beauty,  I  for  one  believe  that  much  pleasure  can 
be  had  from  the  possession  of  fine  reproductions  of 
certain  things,  consoles  among  them. 

Genuine  antiques  are  the  things  we  naturally 
strive  for  first  of  all,  and  consoles  present  a  field  that 
is,  as  yet,  by  no  means  prohibitive,  even  for  the  mod- 
erately filled  purse.  To  be  sure,  the  rare  French 
consoles  of  the  early  Louis  periods  are  not  to  be 
had  at  every  turn  (the  war  has  rendered  them  still 

[165] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

rarer),  but  there  are  English  consoles  and  console 
tables  and  others  by  early  American  furniture-mak- 
ers that  are  surely  worth  hunting  out.  Their  appro- 
priateness to  the  scheme  of  the  small  house  commends 
their  preservation  and  insures  a  revival  of  interest 
in  their  modern  use. 

Virtually  all  of  the  eighteenth-century  furniture- 
makers  constructed  console  tables.  Gilded  furni- 
ture in  all  its  gorgeousness  found  favor  in  England 
shortly  before  1720,  and  the  consoles  and  console 
tables  were  unusually  well  adapted  to  finish  and  dec- 
oration of  the  sort  that  suggested  the  magnificence  of 
Louis  XIV  and,  later  on,  the  elegance  and  richness 
of  Louis  XV.  During  the  Empire  period  some  were 
elaborately  decorated  in  white  and  gold.  With  the 
advent  of  the  Napoleonic  era,  the  console  and  the 
console  table  still  held  sway.  Indeed,  I  do  not 
think  they  have  ever  lost  favor,  and  the  last  few 
years  have  seen  a  remarkable  increase  of  interest  in 
both  furniture  forms  on  the  part  of  decorators  and 
collectors  of  fine  old  furniture.  Moreover,  the  con- 
sole has  not  only  interested  but  influenced  many  of 
our  present-day  architects. 

The  console  and  the  console  table  are  by  no  means 
confined  to  the  furniture-makers  of  France,  Great 
Britain,  and  America.     We  find  both  forms  in  early 

[166] 


CONSOLES 

eighteenth-century  Italian  furniture,  and  in  Spain, 
Austria,  Germany,  and  Russia  one  also  comes  across 
types  of  consoles  that,  dependent  as  they  nearly  al- 
ways are  on  French  models,  still  exhibit  occasional 
variations  in  design  that  link  them  to  the  art  tradi- 
tions of  the  land  of  their  manufacture. 

Formal  apartments  and  the  smaller  reception 
rooms  of  the  eighteenth-century  houses  of  more  or 
less  pretension  came  to  feel  the  need  of  what  one 
furniture-lover  aptly  called  "a  table  that  was  not  a 
table."  In  fact,  Sheraton  insisted  that  "portables," 
as  he  called  consoles,  were  indispensable  in  the  draw- 
ing-room. Marble  shelves  the  width  of  small — and 
sometimes,  indeed,  of  very  large — tables  were  sup- 
ported by  brackets  along  the  wall,  bringing  the  shelf 
to  the  height  of  a  table  top.  In  earlier  examples 
the  bold  florid  and  exaggerated  types  in  soft  wood, 
carved  and  gilded,  often  carried  decoration  to  ex- 
tremes. The  consoles  found  place  beneath  great  mir- 
rors and,  occasionally,  beneath  large  paintings, 
tapestries,  and  the  like. 

In  early  consoles  there  was  great  variety  in  their 
supporting  brackets,  the  motifs  of  ornament  being 
taken  from  flowers,  foliage,  parts  of  the  human  form, 
animal  and  bird  forms,  rococo  vagaries,  and  so  on. 
During  the  Empire  the  eagle  came  to  be  popularly 

[167] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

employed  as  a  console  support  by  the  French  furni- 
ture-designers of  the  time.  In  the  collection  of  the 
Duke  of  Beaufort  are  a  number  of  the  finest  exam- 
ples of  the  eagle  consoles.  There  are  also  some  fine 
examples  in  the  state  dining-room  of  the  White 
House.  Before  long  the  earliest  forms  of  console 
supports  gave  way  to  more  extensive  supports  and 
finally  these  reached  the  floor,  as  in  those  consoles 
which  have  the  cabriole  form  of  support. 

Sideboards  were  unknown  during  the  first  part  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  but  when  the  console  table 
was  introduced  into  England,  it  rapidly  developed 
from  the  French  idea  of  the  luxurious  console  for 
ornament's  sake  into  the  generous  console  table  for 
utility's  sake,  which  we  soon  find  in  the  English  din- 
ing-rooms. It  did  not  take  long  for  this  to  suggest 
the  sideboard. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  interest 
in  consoles  on  the  part  of  the  architects  of  to-day. 
This  brings  to  mind  the  fine  console  tables  of  the 
brothers  Adam — ^pieces  which  the  collector  will  do 
well  to  acquire  whenever  the  opportunity  presents 
itself — for  Robert  Adam  was  an  architect  who  de- 
signed furniture  but  was  not  himself  a  cabinet- 
maker, though  his  influence  on  the  classical  taste  in 
the  furniture  of  the  late  eighteenth  century  was  de- 

[168] 


French  Console,  Louis  XIV  Period 


Courtesy  Metropolitan  Mttseum  of  Art 

French  Console,   Louis  XV  Period 


^^^^Km 

■ 

1 

f  >- V  3 

itiN 

■     ■ 

Sevres    White     Bisque 
■Statuette    of    Voltaire 


^PI^^B 


Sevres   White   Bisque 
Bust    of    Franklin 


Courtesy  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 

A  Pair  of  Sevres  Porcelain  Covered  Vases 


CONSOLES 

cided.  Robert  Adam  made  exhaustive  researches  in 
France  and  Italy  and  reached  as  far  as  Spalato  in 
Dalmatia,  whither  his  interest  in  classic  design  took 
him. 

In  finding  a  place  for  the  console  in  the  modern 
house,  it  is  well  to  remember  its  original  use.  Un- 
der a  long  mirror  in  the  drawing-room  was  where 
it  was  generally  placed,  the  tables  being  used  in  pairs 
to  effect  a  studied  balance.  It  can  be  advantage- 
ously placed  in  the  hallway,  where  its  dignity  will 
add  to  the  character  of  the  entrance  and  at  the  same 
time  take  up  but  little  room.  In  dining-rooms  con- 
soles are  arranged  to  serve  as  sideboards.  The  type 
of  console  will  naturally  determine  the  type  of  mir- 
ror or  decoration  suitable  to  hang  above  it,  all  of 
which  the  furniture-collector  should  bear  in  mind. 


[169] 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

SEVRES    PORCELAIN 

THERE  is  no  continental  porcelain  better 
known  by  name  to  every  one  than  the  French 
porcelain  of  Sevres.  Nevertheless,  fewer 
chance  collectors  and  lovers  of  old  china  appear  to 
know  as  much  about  it  as  they  do  about  old  Wor- 
cester, Derby,  Chelsea,  or  Dresden.  Over  fifty 
marks  for  Sevres,  nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty 
marks  of  painters,  decorators,  and  gilders  of  the 
Sevres  manufactory,  as  well  as  over  thirty-five  of  the 
marks  of  some  of  the  modelers  are  known.  The 
principal  marks  of  fabrication  from  1753  to  the  pres- 
ent number  some  thirty-five.  From  this  it  will  be 
seen  that  Sevres  forms  a  group  in  the  history  of 
ceramic  art  that  requires  some  study  to  master  its 
minuticz  and  the  indicia  that  will  enable  the  collector 
to  pass  intelligent  judgment  on  pieces  that  come  to 
his  notice.  While  it  is  true  that  the  collecting  of 
Sevres  can  hardly  be  a  "poor  man's  hobby,"  it  also 
is  true  that  knowing  something  about  even  a  single 
piece  in  one's  general  collection  of  old  china,  or  of 

[170] 


SEVRES  PORCELAIN 

less  specialized  antiques  and  curios,  justifies  giving 
attention  to  the  ramifications  of  the  particular  phase 
of  the  subject  that  may,  for  the  moment,  more 
definitely  apply  to  the  piece  in  hand.  Thus  if  one 
possesses  a  bit  of  modern  Sevres  of  fine  quality,  the 
interest  of  that  possession  cannot  but  be  intensified 
by  a  knowledge  of  earlier  examples  of  the  fabrique 
to  which  it  is  allied. 

Fatal  improvements  have  often  marked  the  prog- 
ress of  the  arts.  It  was  so  with  that  of  the  Royal 
Porcelain  of  Sevres.  The  early  pieces  were  of  soft 
paste,  but  in  1804  the  director.  Monsieur  Brogniart, 
was  so  pleased  with  the  introduction  of  the  hard 
paste  instead  that  he  utterly  banished  the  soft 
paste,  going  so  far  as  to  destroy  the  secret  formula 
for  its  making,  and  burying  alive,  as  one  might  say, 
all  the  soft-paste  material  then  on  hand  in  the  Pare 
de  Versailles!  Poor,  deluded  mortal!  Probably 
he  died  unaware  of  having  murdered  the  Sevres 
porcelain  of  the  finest  type!  Thus  one  begins  to 
understand  why  the  examples  of  the  pate  tendre  of 
the  year  1753  through  to  the  change  for  the  hard 
pate  are  so  rare  and  so  highly  prized. 

By  old  Sevres  we  comprehend  the  pieces  made 
from  1753  to  1804.  This  is  the  true  vieux  Sevres, 
From  1753  to  1777  inclusive  the  letters  of  the  al- 

[171] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

phabet,  singly,  from  A  to  Z,  (W  omitted),  indicate 
the  years  of  manufacture.  The  year  letters  were 
placed  between  the  two  script  L's  (one  reversed). 
The  letters  A,  B,  and  C  indicate  the  pieces  made  at 
Vincennes  (the  original  site  of  the  manufactory)  in 
1753,  1754,  and  1755  respectively,  while  the  year  of 
the  removal  of  the  manufactory  to  Sevres,  near  St. 
Cloud,  1756,  is  indicat-ed  by  the  letter  D  between 
the  double  L's.  The  L's,  of  course,  stood  for  the 
royal  cipher  of  Louis  XV,  the  first  year,  and  then 
of  Louis  XVI  of  France  from  1754  to  September, 
1792,  when  the  French  Republic  was  proclaimed 
and  R.F.  in  monogram  or  in  capital  letters  took  its 
place. 

In  the  study  of  any  porcelain  pieces  the  amateur 
should  acquaint  himself  with  the  difference  between 
soft  and  hard  porcelain  of  any  sort.  The  eight- 
eenth-century porcelain  has  a  soft,  velvety  "feel," 
the  glaze  not  being  so  glassy  as  that  of  hard 
porcelain.  A  pen-knife  can  cause  abrasion  on  soft- 
paste  porcelain,  while  hard  paste  will  nearly  al- 
ways repel  even  the  pressure  of  a  steel  point  drawn 
over  it.  With  soft  paste  one  can  see  through 
the  glaze,  as  it  were;  with  hard  paste  one  cannot. 
The  enamel  of  the  soft  paste  of  Sevres  presents  a 
delicate,  milky  glaze,  exquisitely  distinctive.     The 

[172] 


SEVRES  PORCELAIN 

colors,  too,  show  forth  with  velvety  freshness. 
Bleu  du  rot — king's  blue — is  the  name  given  the 
cobalt  blue  of  the  decoration;  turquoise  designates 
the  sky-blue  which  dates  from  1752,  when  Helbot 
first  compounded  it;  rose  'Pompadour  and  rose  Du- 
harry  are  the  names  given  the  reds  during  the  domi- 
nation of  those  court  favorites;  violet  pensee^  the 
name  for  the  pansy  color;  ]aune  clair^  the  name  for 
the  pale  yellow  {jonquille  was  as  often  used) ;  vert 
pomme  and  vert  jaune  designated  the  apple-green, 
while  vert  anglais  and  vert  pre  was  applied  to  the 
color  we  term  grass-green. 

There  is  also  a  velvety  "feel"  about  the  unenam- 
eled  portions  of  porcelain,  owing  to  its  fine  texture, 
which  distinguishes  it  from  hard  porcelain.  Looked 
at  obliquely  against  the  light  so  that  a  portion  of  the 
white  surface  and  a  portion  of  the  painted  surface 
equally  receive  a  beam,  there  appear  no  differences 
in  surfaces.  With  a  soft  porcelain  the  enamel 
seems  so  to  incorporate  with  the  soft  paste  as  to 
present  a  surface  of  indentical  substance.  Hard  por- 
celain will  exhibit  a  distinct  difference  in  the  lustre 
of  the  white  surface  and  in  the  colored  glazed  sur- 
face. The  color  surface  will  invariably  appear  less 
brilliant. 

In  Sevres  porcelain  of  the  first  period  the  white 
[173] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

ground  predominates.  The  flowers  and  wreathes, 
etc.,  are  delicately  scattered  over  but  do  not  crowd 
the  white  field.  In  later  pieces  the  decorations  came 
by  degree  to  be  the  more  assertive.  Likewise,  more 
gilding  was  employed.  After  1770  portraits  came 
into  the  decoration,  and  the  designs  of  the  Louis 
Quinze  and  those  of  the  Louis  Quatorze  periods  were 
superseded  by  designs  which  followed  more  along 
Egyptian  and  Etruscan  lines.  With  the  soft  porce- 
lain of  Sevres  very  large  pieces  could  not  be  pro- 
duced, but  of  the  later  hard-paste  porcelain  huge 
vases  were  often  fabricated,  marvels  indeed  of  cera- 
mic skill,  though  seldom  as  artistic  and  perfect  in 
technical  qualities. 

The  bisque  statuettes  of  early  Sevres  eagerly 
sought  by  museums  and  collectors  are  one  of  the 
interesting  phases  of  this  manufacture,  though 
these  objects  scarcely  can  be  said  to  approach  those 
of  Saxony.  Their  manufacture  at  Sevres  was  almost 
given  up  after  1777.  We  have,  however,  from  our 
own  day,  the  much-treasured  statuettes  modeled  for 
Sevres  by  modern  sculptors,  among  whom  was  the 
late  Auguste  Rodin. 

From  1778  to  1792,  inclusive,  the  year  mark  was 
indicated  by  the  double  letters  AA  to  OO,  within 
the    interlaced    L's.     During    the    period    of    the 

[174] 


SEVRES  PORCELAIN 

First  Republic  (1792-1804)  the  mark  was,  first,  the 
interlaced  F.R.  (for  Republique  Frangaise)^  then 
the  letters  R.F.  with  the  word  "Sevres"  below 
("Sevres"  being  written  with  or  without  the  accent 
mark),  or  just  the  word  "Sevres,"  and  finally  in 
the  Consular  period  of  this  epoch  "MN^^"  over 
the  word  "Sevres"  (from  1803-1804).  The  years 
IX  (1801),  X  (1802),  and  XI  (1803)  were  desig- 
nated by  "T^"  "X,'  and  "11"  in  addition. 

The  mark  of  the  first  imperial  epoch  ( 1804-1814) 
was  "M.  Imp^^"  over  "de  Sevres,"  two  ornamental 
strokes  below  without  accent  mark,  and  then,  later, 
the  imperial  eagle  crowned  with  the  legend,  "Manu- 
facture Imperiale.  Sevres^''  without  accent  mark 
(1810).  The  years  XII  (1804),  XIII  (1805)  and 
XIV  (1806)  were  marked  by  distinguishing  sym- 
bols (1804  by  two  horizontal  dashes,  a  dot  above 
and  one  below;  1805  by  two  short  lines  aslant,  a 
horizontal  dash  to  the  left  and  one  to  the^  right; 
the  year  1806  by  a  mark  resembling  the  prong  of  a 
trident,  point  upward). 

The  Sevres  marks  of  the  second  royal  epoch  con- 
sisted of  the  restored  interlaced  L's  of  Louis  XVIII 
and  the  fleur-de-lys  between  (1814-1823);  of  the 
interlaced  C's  of  Charles  X,  with  the  X  between, 
or   the   fleur-de-lys    or   without    (1824-1829);   of 

[175] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

just  the  fleur-de-lys  (August  30th  to  December, 
1830)  and  other  marks  in  circles  (1831-1834)  and 
the  cipher  L.  P.  of  Louis  Philippe  (1834-1848). 

With  the  advent  of  the  second  republican  epoch, 
1848-1851,  the  "R.  F."  was  restored,  only  to  be 
displaced  by  the  imperial  eagle  (1852)  with  the 
letter  S  to  left  and  "52"  to  the  right  of  the  eagle, 
and  the  crowned  N  of  1854  of  the  second  imperial 
epoch  (1852-1872),  with  the  letter  S  to  left  and 
the  year  numeral  to  right  of  the  N.  The  Third  Re- 
public brought  back  the  "R.  F."  again,  followed 
by  other  marks,  the  one  introduced  in  1888  show- 
ing a  potter  at  work,  the  whole  within  a  double 
circle  bearing  the  legend  Nationale  Sevres  Manu- 
facture, From  1817  date  marks  were  designated 
by  the  last  two  numerals  of  the  year  number  only, 
as  the  date  1807,  1808,  1809,  and  1810  had  been 
designated  by  7,  8,  9,  and  10.  The  years  1811  to 
1817,  inclusive,  had  been  designated  by  the  small 
letters  o.z,  d.z,  t.z,  q.z,  q.n,  s.z,  and  d.s,  standing, 
respectively,  for  the  French  onze^  douze^  treize^ 
quatorze^  quize^  seize^  and  dix-sept. 

The  output  of  the  Sevres  works  in  recent  years  has 
been  very  small,  that  institution  having  become  a 
place  for  the  education  and  training  of  French  pot- 
ters who  will  carry  on  the  Sevres  traditions  in  other 

[176] 


SEVRES  PORCELAIN 

lines  of  their  work.  Such  examples  as  are  being 
made  to-day  take  the  form  of  presentation  sets  of 
ware  especially  designed  and  made  as  a  gift  to  a  po- 
tentate, a  diplomat,  or  as  a  token  of  the  French  Gov- 
ernment's regard  on  such  occasions  as  the  marriage 
of  a  princess  or  a  president's  daughter.  Various 
quantities  of  it  have  been  brought  to  this  country 
at  the  time  of  expositions,  and  much  of  that  has 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  American  collectors. 
It  is  still  possible  to  pick  up  here  and  there  good 
pieces  that  are  genuine  and  thoroughly  worth  while. 
Notwithstanding  the  advanced  collector's  greater 
eagerness  to  collect  Sevres  of  the  pate-tendre  period, 
later  Sevres  is  an  alluring,  interesting,  entertaining, 
and  possible  field  for  the  collector  to  enter  without 
discouragement,  and  the  pieces  of  this  later  fabrique 
well  deserve  a  place  in  the  cabinet  or  as  a  decora- 
tive feature  in  the  home  of  good  taste. 


[177I 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

EUROPEAN    ENAMELS 

WHILE  it  is  true  that  few  collectors  of 
the  present  day  can  aspire  to  any  goodly 
number  of  really  fine  examples  of 
European  enamels,  the  subject  is  nevertheless  one 
of  great  interest,  and  the  author  believes  there  are 
many  who  will  find  pleasure  in  a  study  of  the  enamels 
of  European  fabrication,  particularly  those  objects 
familiarly  known  as  Limoges  enamels  but  more  prop- 
erly to  be  called  painted  enamels  to  distinguish 
them  from  the  cloisonne  and  the  champleve  enamels. 
It  may  be  well  to  indicate  here  the  characteristics  of 
the  several  groups. 

Cloisonne:  As  early  as  the  time  of  the  ancients 
it  was  found  that  to  prevent  the  running  together 
of  molten  glass  enamels,  little  boundaries  of  metal 
wire  could  be  devised  for  soldering  on  to  the  metal 
base  to  mark  the  divisions  of  the  pattern,  or  merely 
to  bound  areas,  thus  forming  a  number  of  diminu- 
tive shallow  "pans,"  into  which  the  melted  flux  ex- 
panded, and  when  cooled  and  polished  revealed  a 

[J78] 


EUROPEAN  ENAMELS 

surface  level  with  the  height  of  the  wire  cloisons, 
giving  them  the  appearance  of  being  metal  wires 
that  had  been  imbedded  in  the  glass.  Gold,  being 
neutral  to  every  known  color,  is  the  harmonizer 
paramount,  and  thus  when  gold  cloisons  were  used, 
the  various  colors  were  knit  together  into  esthetically 
pleasing  surfaces.  The  little  metal  threads  running 
through  modern  Japanese  enamels  are  such  cloisons. 
Cloisonne  enamel  is  the  earliest  sort  of  true  enamel 
known  to  us.  It  was  the  favorite  Byzantine  proc- 
ess, and  also  that  of  the  Greeks,  the  Anglo-Saxons, 
the  Chinese,  and  later  of  the  Japanese  and  the  Rus- 
sians. 

Relief  Cloissonne,  This  term  is  used  to  designate 
those  pieces  wherein  the  enamel  either  is  below  or 
above  the  tops  of  the  cloisons,  or  where  only  cer- 
tain cloisons  enclose  enamel,  or  a  combination  of 
the  three  sorts,  giving  to  the  surface  of  an  object 
completed  in  this  manner  an  interesting  uneven 
ground  of  smooth  but  unpolished  enamel.  The 
cloisons  of  much  of  this  work,  especially  the  Hun- 
garian and  the  Russian,  are  of  filigree  wire,  or  twisted 
wire,  instead  of  flat  wire  such  as  was  used  for  this 
purpose  by  Byzantine  craftsmen. 

Champleve.  This  is  the  name  given  to  the  proc- 
ess of  gouging  out  of  a  field  {champ)  of  metal  a 

[179] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

number  of  hollows  {levees)  or  "ditches"  for  the 
pattern,  in  which  cut-out  depressions  the  vitreous 
color  is  fused  and  becomes  enamel.  It  is  akin  to 
the  ancient  Egyptian  method  of  scooping  out  surfaces 
in  gold,  soapstone,  wool,  and  other  materials,  insert- 
ing therein  bits  of  colored  glass.  Had  the  Egyptians 
practised  true  enameling,  doubtless  their  process 
would  have  begun  with  champleve,  for  they  did  not 
anticipate  the  Greek  goldsmiths,  who  worked  pat- 
terns on  gold  in  cloisons  long  before  they  had  any 
idea  of  applying  vitreous  color  thereto.  Indeed, 
the  early  Greeks  and  the  Etruscans  were  wonder- 
fully skilful  at  soldering  gold.  This  champleve 
process  might  be  termed  Gothic,  succeeding  in  in- 
troduction though  not  superseding  the  Byzantine 
cloisonne.  However,  centuries  before  Byzantine  or 
Gothic  works  appeared,  the  Celts  produced  cham- 
pleve enamels. 

Repousse,  This  term  is  applied  to  the  base  of 
those  objects  wherein  the  ornament  is  beaten  out,  in 
silhouette  as  it  were,  in  the  metal  and  the  details 
marked  by  cloisons  let  in.  Much  of  this  work  is 
easily  mistaken  for  champleve,  but  where  the  pattern 
is  scooped  out  in  champleve,  it  is  beaten  out  in  re- 
pousse. One  who  has  visited  the  treasury  of  St. 
Mark's  in  Venice  will   recall  that  the  plaquettes 

[180] 


EUROPEAN  ENAMELS 

from  a  Gospel  cover  to  be  found  there  were  executed 
in  repousse — the  pattern  simply  hammered  in  the 
silver,  which  afterward  was  filled  with  translucent 
enamel.  In  Oriental  repousse  work  the  metal  di- 
visions between  the  fields  of  enamel  are  beaten  up, 
the  reverse  of  the  process  just  described.  In  mod- 
ern Chinese  enamel-work  the  repousse  process  has 
superseded  champleve  for  effects  of  the  sort. 

Basse  Taille.  This  is  the  process  of  engraving 
the  ground,  which  is  to  receive  translucent  enamel, 
so  that  the  lines  made  by  the  graver  will  show  up 
through  the  translucent  vitrified  coating  and  produce 
a  greater  play  of  light,  or  define  patterns,  the  vein- 
ing  of  leaves,  the  marking  of  petals,  the  lines  of 
draperies,  etc.  The  French  enamelers  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  habitually  employed  the  process,  and 
Indian  enamelers  preceded  them  by  at  least  a  cen- 
tury, while  its  invention  is  ascribed  to  an  Italian, 
John  of  Pisa,  in  1286.  This  chasing  or  engraving 
upon  gold  or  silver  for  the  purpose  of  showing  grad- 
uation in  the  vitreous  color  to  be  applied  is  akin  to 
champlev6. 

Plique  cL  Jour,  Enamels  of  this  sort  consist  of 
certain  screen-like  objects  in  filigree  with  their  un- 
backed cloison  divisions  filled  up  with  translucent 
enamel.     Flique  a  Jour  enamel  may  be  compared 

[181] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

to  stained-glass  windows,  the  principle  being  the 
same,  only  carried  out  on  a  miniature  scale.  An 
excellent  example  of  this  is  a  fifteenth-century  cup 
in  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum,  while  the  Crown 
of  St.  Stephen,  dating  from  1072  a.  d.,  would  ap- 
pear to  be  the  earliest  known  work  of  the  sort  that 
has  survived.  The  Russians  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury so  perfected  the  process  that  pUque  a  jour 
enamel  is  often  called  Russian  enamel.  Doubtless 
the  forming  of  cups,  caskets,  and  other  precious  ob- 
jects of  gems  in  unbacked  mosaic  suggested  the  style, 
and  the  jeweled  cup  of  Chosroes  to  be  seen  in  the 
Bibliotheque  Nationale,  Paris,  may  well  be  consid- 
ered  a  forerunner  of  it. 

Encrusted  Enamel.  This  may  be  defined  as 
enamel  used  to  enrich  raised  and  modeled  gold-work 
where  this  vitreous  color  is  neither  entrenched,  as 
in  cloisonne  or  in  champleve,  nor  painted,  like 
Limoges  work,  on  a  flat  field.  The  craftsmen  of 
the  Renaissance,  both  in  Italy  and  in  France,  pro- 
duced exquisite  jewels  of  encrusted  enamel,  imitated 
by  the  Florentine  jewelers  of  to-day  who  display 
their  wares  along  the  shops  of  the  Ponte  Vecchio. 
Painted  enamels  in  this  group  may  be  subdivided  as 
follows : 

(a)  Those    works    which    have    vitreous    colors 

[182] 


EUROPEAN  ENAMELS 

added  here  and  there  to  subdue,  to  correct,  or  to 
outline  and  decorate  enamel  surfaces,  such  as  the 
pale  yellows  added  to  soften  glaring  whites,  red  to 
restore  a  color  unsuccessful  in  the  firing,  outlines 
of  plants  and  other  forms  and  inscriptions.  Used 
in  combination  with  both  cloisonne  and  champleve, 
and  later  to  add  further  decorations  to  basse  taille 
surfaces. 

(b)  Those  works  painted  with  successive  firings 
of  translucent  or  transparent  colored  enamels  over 
a  primary  enamel  ground  that  first  has  been  fused 
to  its  metal  field  of  gold,  silver,  or  copper.  Limoges 
enamels  of  this  sort,  whether  in  color  or  in  grisaille 
(gray),  as  also  are  the  much-neglected  enamels 
known  as  Venetian  enamels. 

So  much  for  the  general  broad  divisions  of 
enamels,  though  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  there 
was  often  employed  in  the  working  out  of  a  single 
object  more  than  a  single  process.  As  color  plays 
so  important  a  part  in  the  evolution  of  the  history 
of  enamels,  the  following  table  may  prove  useful  to 
the  collector  as  determining  the  more  important  col- 
ors of  the  enameler's  palette  at  different  periods  in 
the  history  of  the  art: 

[183] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

COLORS    AND    PERIODS 

Greek  WorL  The  colors  used  by  the  Greeks  were  opaque 
white,  blue,  and  green. 

Barbaric  Work.  British,  Gallic,  Celtic,  and  Roman- 
Provincial  enamelers  used  scarlet,  cobalt  blue,  dark 
green,  yellows  through  light  shades  to  orange  and  to 
ochre;  white,  black,  and  possibly  turquoise. 

Early  Byzantine  Work  employed  opaque  scarlet,  coral, 
white,  black,  and  translucent  sapphire  blue,  emerald, 
green,  ruby  red,  and  manganese  violet. 

Later  Byzantine  Work.  Added  to  the  above  colors,  toward 
the  eleventh  century,  cobalt  blue  and  turquoise,  pale  yel- 
low, and  a  flesh  tint. 

Early  Limoges  Work  relied  upon  blue,  green,  red,  with 
purple  and  iron  gray,  and  the  lighter  half-tones  known 
before  the  twelfth  century. 

Later  Limoges  Work.  Its  full  palette  is  composed  of  deep 
blue  to  lapis  blue  and  light  blue;  scarlet,  a  red  ap- 
proaching chocolate,  green,  greenish  yellow,  white,  and 
a  semi-translucent  manganese  purple.  In  thirteenth- 
century  work  blue  is  the  dominating  color.  The 
twelfth-century  translucent  colors  give  way  to  the  con- 
sistent use  of  opaque  ones  in  the  years  following. 

Germanic  Work.  This  contains  less  cobalt  blue,  but  em- 
ployes the  colors  of  the  Limoges  workers,  introducing, 
however,  a  great  deal  of  turquoise  and,  much  more 
green  and  pale  yellow  than  the  French  enamelers  used. 
The  German  enamelers  were  fond  of  black,  also. 

Nearly  every  writer  upon  enamels  quotes  the  con- 
venient commendation  of  the  Greek  sophist,  Philos- 

[184] 


EUROPEAN  ENAMELS 

tratus,  who  went  to  Rome  in  the  reign  of  the  Em- 
peror Severus,  about  200  a.  d.,  to  teach  rhetoric. 
In  the  description  of  a  boar  hunt  in  his  "Icones," 
wherein  he  describes  the  trappings  of  the  horses  of 
the  barbarians  (Gauls  or  Britons),  Philostratus 
writes:  "For  the  barbarians  of  the  region  of  the 
ocean  [islanders'?]  are  skilled,  as  it  is  said,  in  fusing 
colors  upon  heated  brass  [copper*?]  which  become 
as  hard  as  stone  and  render  the  ornament  thus  pro- 
duced durable."  The  Romans  in  Italy  knew  noth- 
ing of  such  things.  Labarte  and  other  authorities 
would  have  it  that  this  passage  refers  to  Gallo- 
Roman  work,  though  such  is  rarely  to  be  met  with; 
while  others  claim  for  it  reference  to  the  work  of 
British  craftsmen,  perhaps  under  design-influence  of 
the  Romans.  Probably  enameling  was  known  to 
the  Celts  and  to  the  Britons  independent  of  Roman 
occupation.  Certainly  the  Scoto-Celtic  and  the 
Britanno-Celtic  tendency  in  design  has  little  in  com- 
mon with  that  of  the  ancient  civilized  world  of 
Greece,  of  Rome,  or  of  Egypt.  It  is  just  possible 
the  ingenious  Celts  invented  champleve. 

With  the  rise  of  the  Eastern  Empire  in  the  fourth 
century  a.  d.,  with  its  capital  at  Byzantium,  came 
in  that  style  of  art  known  to  us  as  the  Byzantine, 
just  as  the  North  Italians  produced  the  Lombardic 

[185] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

style  and  western  Europe  the  Gothic.  Byzantine 
enamel  was  rigid  and  conventional  in  design  but 
highly  decorative  and  symbolical.  At  first  the 
direct  influence  of  Greek  and  Roman  art  affected 
their  pictorial  representations,  as  we  see  Christus 
in  earlier  work  depicted  as  a  clean-shaven,  beau- 
tiful young  man,  an  ideal  that  soon  gave  way 
to  the  sad  representation  of  the  Man  of  Sorrows. 
From  the  tenth  century  on,  Byzantine  ecclesiastical 
art  was  barren  of  invention.  With  the  waning  of 
the  empire  in  1057,  the  art  of  the  Byzantine  enamel- 
ers  declined,  and  that  of  the  Italians  and  the  west- 
em  Europeans  blossomed  forth  untrammeled  by  stiff 
convention.  Lombardic  architecture  and  Gothic 
carving  had  helped  to  pave  the  way  for  the  broader 
art  of  the  Middle  Ages,  which  no  longer  confined 
itself  to  cloisonne  but  began  to  put  forth  champleve 
enamels  of  great  beauty  likewise.  Indeed,  in  Gothic 
times  western  craftsmen  rarely  made  use  of  cloisonne 
except  for  personal  ornaments  and  jewelry.  The 
famous  "Lindauer  Evangeliar,"  one  of  the  chief 
treasures  collected  by  the  late  J.  Fierpont  Morgan, 
exhibits  upon  its  covers  superb  examples  of  early 
enameling. 

With    the    revival   of   classical    learning   which 
brought  about  the  Renaissance,  and  the  subsequent 

[186] 


EUROPEAN  ENAMELS 

development  of  secular  thought,  art  ceased  to  be 
what  it  had  been  throughout  the  Middle  Ages — 
merely  the  handmaid  of  the  church.  No  longer  did 
the  enamelers,  Byzantine,  Gothic,  or  Lombardic, 
work  solely  to  adorn  religious  works;  and  ecclesias- 
tical design  broadened  into  secular  application,  a 
return  of  classical  usages  to  a  heritage  of  beauty 
and  unrestraint  from  which,  for  some  centuries,  art 
had  been  kept  by  ecclesiasticism.  By  the  twelfth 
century  the  art  was  well  established  to  Cologne, 
Treves,  Huy,  Maestricht,  and  Verdun,  thence  trav- 
eling perhaps  to  Paris.  Limoges  and  the  Rhenish 
provinces  of  France  became  prolific  in  champleve 
enamels  by  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century.  It  is  to 
1189  A.  D.  that  the  earliest  known  enamels  of 
Limoges  are  ascribed.  There  an  enormous  quantity 
of  work,  good,  bad,  and  indifferent,  was  turned  out 
during  the  thirteenth  century,  an  art  turning  to  a 
trade  thereafter,  and  declining  to  neglect  in  the  four- 
teenth, and  then  going  out  of  fashion  altogether. 

However,  toward  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury the  public  in  general  had  broken  through  Byzan- 
tine, Gothic,  and  Lombardic  esthetic  domination 
and  breathed  the  clearer  air  of  the  Renaissance,  be- 
coming imbued  with  a  desire  for  gentler,  more  beauti- 
ful things ;  and  the  old  town  of  Limoges,  ever  awake 

[1871 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

to  the  commerce  of  demand,  again  started  up  her 
enameling  ovens  and  went  at  the  art  with  renewed 
vigor,  retaining  a  supremacy  that  has  handed  down 
to  us  priceless  treasures  of  the  sort,  exquisite  and 
satisfying.  This  fine  style  may  be  said  to  date  from 
1530  to  1580  (being  preceded  by  the  early  style 
1475-1530),  followed  by  a  minute  style,  1580- 
1630  preceding  the  decadence  that  dated  from  1630 
to  the  close  of  the  manufactory  in  the  eighteenth 
century. 

Limoges  enamels  immediately  bring  to  mind  the 
names  of  such  great  artists  in  enamels  as  the 
Penicauds,  Courtoys,  Limousin,  Raymond,  Martin 
Didier  and  Jean  Court,  dit  Vigier,  and  in  the  de- 
cline Jean  Laudin. 

The  painted  enamels  of  the  early  style  are  exe- 
cuted with  much  white  painting  over  purplish-brown 
grounds,  the  figures  bearing  strong  resemblance  to 
the  Flemish  type.  The  coloring  in  these  examples 
is  very  beautiful.  The  painted  enamels  of  the  fine 
style  exhibit  the  great  advance  achieved  by  drafts- 
men under  Italian  influence.  The  glazes  are  finer 
and  the  finishing  process  a  more  careful  one.  At 
this  period  painting  in  grisaille  became  popular. 
By  this  term  is  meant  monochrome  painting  in 
enamel    the  light  being  worked  up   over   a  dark 

[188] 


Oval    Dish    by    Bernard    Palissy,    1510-1589 


Courtesy  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 

.    Lumieres  by   Bernard  Palissy,    1540-1590 


Limoges  Enamel   Covered   Cup   Attributed    to    Pierre    Raymond 


Courtesy  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art. 

Champleve   Enamel   Casket,   French,   13th   Century 


EUROPEAN  ENAMELS 

ground,  stage  by  stage,  in  white,  leaving  the  chiaros- 
curo to  be  determined  by  the  effect  of  the  ground 
showing  through.  Shading  was  often  further  em- 
phasized by  black  lines  or  hatchings.  The  resulting 
gray  tone  gives  the  style  its  name.  Later,  relief 
from  the  monotony  of  gray  was  found  by  the  addi- 
tion of  one  or  two  tints,  such  as  flesh  tint,  as  may  be 
seen  in  the  work  of  Jean  Penicaud,  Pierre  Ray- 
mond, and  Leonard  Limousin.  Perhaps  Pierre  Ray- 
mond distinguishes  himself  as  exhibiting  the  finest 
color  sense,  though  he  may  not  have  possessed  Leon- 
ard Limousin's  qualities  of  bold  and  direct  handling. 
This  latter  artist,  who  worked  from  1532  to  1574 
and  advertised  himself  in  a  little  panel  introduced 
into  one  of  his  works  as  "Enameller  and  Painter  to 
the  Chamber  of  the  King,"  was  a  consummate  por- 
traitist, and  executed  some  splendid  portraits  in 
enamel.  Any  one  who  is  acquainted  with  Italian 
faience  will  be  struck  by  the  relationships  in  effect 
between  maiolica  ware  and  Limoges  enamels. 

After  Jean  Limousin,  descendant  of  the  great 
Leonard,  and  his  school,  enameling  as  a  truly  fine 
art  began  to  die  out  at  Limoges,  in  1610.  Colin, 
Martin,  Poncet,  Laudin,  and  the  Noalhers  carried 
on  the  work,  but  Jean  Limousin  stood  shoulders 
above  them  all.     Toutin  introduced  enamel-paint- 

1 189] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

ing  on  gold  in  1732  and  the  products  became 
daintily  and  insipidly  delicate,  quite  in  the  taste  of 
Louis  XIV  and  his  successors,  until  at  last  enamel- 
ing became  little  better  than  a  rivaling  imitation  of 
china-painting. 


[190] 


CHAPTER  XXV 

THE    ROMANCE    OF    A    POTTER!    BERNARD    PALISSY 

FAR  better  it  is  that  one  man  or  a  small  num- 
ber of  men  should  make  their  profit  from 
some  art  by  living  honestly,  than  that  a 
large  number  of  men  should  struggle,  one  against 
the  other,  so  that  they  cannot  gain  a  livelihood  save 
by  profaning  the  arts,  leaving  things  half  done.  So 
said  Master  Bernard  Palissy,  born  some  four  hun- 
dred years  ago — in  1510,  to  be  exact — near  Chateau 
Biron  in  Perigord,  France. 

Where  in  the  whole  history  of  the  arts  will  a  more 
interesting  figure  be  found?  His  was  not  the  swash- 
buckling career  of  a  Cellini ;  nevertheless  the  serious- 
minded  would  not  exchange  him  for  the  volatile 
Italian  who  seemed  ever  and  anon  to  be  swallowing 
diamond  dust  or  crossing  a  cardinal  for  copy. 
Palissy's  was  romance  of  a  different  sort,  but  romance 
of  a  fine  type. 

I  have  often  wondered  why  we  of  to-day  have 
almost   forgotten   about   Master   Bernard,    Master 

[191] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

Bernard  whom  the  readers  of  our  grandmothers'  gen- 
eration immortalized.  I  suppose  the  cultivated 
virtue  of  novelty  which  in  this  restless  era  demands 
incessant  changing  of  school-books  from  term  to  term 
failed  to  bring  old  Palissy  along  with  it.  In  earlier 
days  it  was  part  and  parcel  of  one's  polite  education 
to  know  something  of  Master  Bernard,  at  least  to 
know  that  there  had  once  lived  such  a  person.  In 
those  less  curriculumed  yesterdays  the  story  of 
Palissy  the  Potter  was  always  a  welcome  one.  Per- 
haps we  ourselves  have  merely  overlooked  the  mat- 
ter, and  so  I  make  here  this  venture,  believing  time 
has  intended  no  slight  to  Master  Bernard's  memory. 
How  well  I  recall  a  certain  lower  shelf  in  a  li- 
brary which  regaled  a  rainy  autumn  day  in  my 
tender  years !  There  were  treasures  here  convenient 
to  the  hand  of  one  aged  nine,  treasures  fitting  the 
advancement  of  learning  laboriously  attained  under 
the  unflinching  persistence  of  an  all-too-faithful 
governess.  In  this  sanctuary  I  chanced  in  childhood 
to  come  upon  a  tiny  octavo  bound  in  blue,  stamped 
with  gilt  morning-glories,  morning-glories  such  as 
I  have  always  associated,  for  some  unexplained  rea- 
son, with  the  long-late  Prince  Albert  and  the  equally 
long-late  Lucy  Larcom !  Within  the  covers  of  this 
little  book  was  a  highly  embellished  frontispiece, 

[192] 


THE  ROMANCE  OF  A  POTTER 

hand-stenciled  in  colors  of  saffron,  scarlet,  and  azure, 
with  an  overwhelmingly  deep  dash  of  bottle-green. 
I  imagine  this  volume  emerged  from  the  press  at  a 
time  when  aniline  dyes  self-proclaimed  their  ad- 
vent to  the  mediocrity  of  the  day.  Beyond  that  I 
do  not  venture  a  date. 

This  giddy  frontispiece  seemed,  even  in  my  child- 
ish eyes,  profanely  gay  for  the  subject  it  presented. 
Here  was  depicted  the  figure  of  a  bearded  man  in 
foreign  dress,  visage  forlorn,  person  unkempt.  The 
artist  pictured  him  in  the  act  of  destroying  a  quan- 
tity of  furniture  of  a  sort  that  might  have  given  dis- 
tinction to  an  early  Victorian  parlor. 

Just  what  seemed  so  terrifying  about  the  situation 
I  do  not  know,  unless  it  was  that,  as  I  distinctly  re- 
call, I  myself  had  occasionally  been  regarded  as 
somewhat  destructive  in  the  furniture  line — as  when, 
quite  unintentionally,  I  scratched  my  great-aunt's 
mahogany  sofa  in  making  a  desperate  attempt  not 
to  slide  off  its  hair-covered  plateau  at  a  moment 
when  the  peculiarly  poignant  texture  of  this  revered 
fabric  had  caused  me  unwittingly  to  squirm  about  in 
manoevering  for  a  less  irritating  bit  of  the  area. 
From  that  time  on  a  certain  Miss  Solander,  occu- 
pying the  important  post  of  governess,  could  not 
adjust  her  perspective  to  considering  me  other  than 

[193] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

a  menace  to  mahogany  in  the  front  of  the  house  or 
black  walnut  in  the  rear. 

Thus  you  can  well  imagine  how  heroically  there 
loomed  forth  from  that  frontispiece  the  figure  of 
one  who  was  deliberately  breaking  up  chairs,  tables, 
stools,  four-posters,  and  what  not — and  a  grown  man 
at  that!  But  the  thrillingness  of  the  situation  was 
further  enhanced  by  the  fact  that  not  only  was  he 
breaking  up  the  furniture  but  he  was  feeding  it  to 
the  flames!  There  was  no  doubt  of  it:  a  copious 
employment  of  carmine  and  saffron  made  that  point 
clear.  That  any  one  should  have  dared  to  be  so 
deliberately  destructive  at  once  awakened  my  curi- 
osity, and  I  am  not  sure  it  did  not  awaken  my  ad- 
miration as  well.  I  hope  not,  for  as  we  grow  older 
we  like  to  think  that  our  Golden  Days  were  paragon 
in  their  virtues. 

It  was  not  long  before  I  discovered  in  the  back- 
ground of  the  picture  the  figure  of  a  woman  in  a 
Breton  cap — inexcusable  anachronism,  though  I  did 
not  know  it  then.  Who  was  she*?  The  furniture- 
breaker's  governess,  perhaps;  no,  that  could  not  be, 
for  he  was  older  than  she.  From  the  comer  of  my 
eye  I  took  a  swift  visual  dart  at  Miss  Solander. 
The  lady  in  the  picture  appeared  timid  and  weeping. 
No,  it  would  not  be  a  governess. 

[194] 


THE  ROMANCE  OF  A  POTTER 

Just  then  a  voice  interrupted:  'What  are  you 
looking  at,  child?" 

"I  do  not  know,"  I  replied. 

"You  do  not  know !"  exclaimed  Miss  Solander  in 
expected  disapproval.  "Pray,  why  do  you  not 
know?"     She  moved  near,  to  be  serviceable. 

Now,  Miss  Solander  never  cared  for  pictures,  at 
least  only  for  painted  ones  of  forget-me-nots  and 
buttercups  in  water-color  and  sheep  by  Mauve  in 
oil,  so  I  hurried  on  to  spell  out  the  title-page.  I 
gave  it  up. 

"P-a-1-i-s-sy, — Palissy.  Master  Bernard  Palissy 
the  Potter,"  coached  Miss  Solander. 

"  What  is  a  potter?  "  I  asked.  And  then  it  be- 
gan. 

In  these  after  years  I  have  always  been  glad  that 
Miss  Solander's  embroidery  chenille  gave  out  at  the 
first  question,  and  that  a  gentle  rain  kept  us  indoors. 
Undoubtedly,  too,  this  little  book  had  been  known 
to  her  childhood,  for  she  extended  it  a  more  approv- 
ing greeting  than  it  was  her  wont  to  vouchsafe  many 
of  my  other  early  literary  discoveries.  At  any  rate, 
I  have  forgiven  her  much,  for  that  afternoon  she 
read  me  the  story  of  Master  Bernard  from  beginning 
to  end. 

How  it  all  came  back  to  me  yesterday  when  my 

[195] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

friend  Cleon,  at  whose  house  I  was  dining,  took  me 
into  his  library  and  showed  me,  not  a  book  about 
the  old  potter  but  an  actual  bit  of  his  craft,  a  sauce- 
boat  in  the  enameled  faience  which  Palissy  struggled 
through  so  many  years  of  vicissitude  to  produce. 
Tenderly  I  took  it  in  my  hands  and  gazed  intimately 
upon  its  lovely  soft  blues,  grays,  browns,  wonderful 
greens,  and  the  soft  and  well-fused  marbled  colors 
on  the  back  of  the  piece,  all  of  which,  together  with 
the  sharp  modeling  of  the  relief  and  "neatness"  of 
its  workmanship  gave  unmistakable  evidence  of  its 
authenticity.  It  had  not  the  crude  greens,  the  glar- 
ing yellows  or  the  bright  purples  that  betray  imi- 
tations of  Palissy's  ware. 

I  have  seen  the  fine  collections  of  Master  Ber- 
nard's handiwork  in  the  Louvre,  the  Hotel  Cluny, 
the  Sevres  Museum,  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Mu- 
seum and  the  Wallace  Collection  in  London,  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  in  New  York,  and 
the  other  collections  of  note,  public  and  private,  at 
home  and  abroad,  but  the  little  sauciere  which  my 
friend  Cleon  permitted  me  to  gaze  upon — nay,  dear 
reader,  to  hold  in  my  hands ! — there  was  not  a  finer 
bit  anywhere.  Master  Bernard  must  have  given  a 
chuckle  of  contentment  when  he  drew  it  from  the 
kiln! 

[196] 


THE  ROMANCE  OF  A  POTTER 

One  might,  with  a  princely  purse,  collect  a  few 
examples  of  Palissy  ware  in  the  course  of  a  life- 
time keenly  devoted  to  collecting!  But  so  rare 
is  Palissy  ware  that  even  in  Cleon's  house  I  had 
not  expected  to  see  such  a  treasure.  Strangely 
enough,  it  had  been  discovered,  not  just  bought;  dis- 
covered in  London,  and,  unromantically  enough, 
though  exultingly,  in  a  shop  whose  keeper  ought  to 
have  known  what  it  was,  who  ought  to  have  known 
enough  not  to  let  it  go  for  the  mere  pittance  of — 
but  that  is  Cleon's  secret! 

My  own  flair  for  collecting  has  often  fed  my 
pride,  but  it  is  tempered  with  a  happy  contentment 
from  an  interest  in  the  things  I  cannot  have,  may 
never  hope  to  have!  I  cannot,  perhaps,  describe 
to  you  the  delight  I  experienced  in  coming  upon 
that  saucier e  at  Cleon's  or  the  joy  I  felt  in  being  per- 
mitted to  take  my  time  in  gloating  over  it  unhurried 
by  a  museum  curator,  whose  official  anxiety  must  of 
necessity  ever  play  false  to  his  kindly  attempt  to 
conceal  it.  When  I  came  home  I  looked  over  all  my 
photographs  of  Palissy  ware,  and  took  down  from  its 
shelf  in  my  library  a  volume  in  French  of  the  Works 
of  Master  Bernard,  a  volume  of  the  date  of  1636, 
followed  by  one  of  1777  and  one  of  1844.  Mas- 
ter Bernard  was  not  only  a  notable  potter,  but,  as 

[197] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

both  Lamartine  and  Anatole  France  observed,  he 
holds  a  high  position  among  French  writers  in  the 
field  of  natural  philosophy,  agriculture,  and  religion. 

Master  Bernard's  early  life  is  wrapped  in  mys- 
tery. We  know  nothing  of  his  parentage  or  of  his 
early  education.  Probably,  as  Henry  Morley  ob- 
served, "As  a  child  he  rolled  upon  the  moss  and 
ripened  with  the  chestnuts."  In  later  life  Palissy 
himself  declared  that  he  had  had  "no  other  books 
than  heaven  and  earth,  which  were  open  to  all." 

Yet  he  learned  reading,  writing,  and  something 
of  figuring,  besides  something  of  design  and  also 
of  geometry,  after  the  simple  methods  of  his  time. 
It  is  doubtful  if  any  of  the  learning  of  his  day  was 
communicated  to  him  in  his  youth,  and  it  seems  more 
probable  that  he  drew  inspiration  for  his  philosophy 
from  the  trees  and  the  earth,  and  that  nature  her- 
self taught  him  those  many  lessons  he  applied  so 
perfectly  to  future  problems  which  confronted  him. 
But  we  know  that  at  an  early  age  he  became  ap- 
prenticed to  the  art  of  painting  and  working  at 
glass.  Inasmuch  as  this  art  was  considered  very 
honorable  in  those  days  and  practised  by  members 
of  the  lesser  nobility,  it  is  possible  that  Palissy  may 
have  sprung  from  that  class  who  did  not  lose  their 
dignity  of  station  by  following  this  vocation. 

[198] 


THE  ROMANCE  OF  A  POTTER 

But  under  Francis  I  there  came  a  certain  disasso- 
ciation  in  the  crafts.  The  architect  separated  from 
the  builder,  the  sculptor  from  the  stone-worker,  and 
the  glass-painter  from  the  glass- worker.  It  was 
then  the  art  fell  into  decay  somewhat,  and  like  many 
another  disappointed  worker,  Palissy  turned  aside 
to  seek  some  other  field  for  his  abilities,  as  now  he 
was  scarcely  able  to  eke  out  a  living  by  the  old 
means.  For  a  time  he  commanded  better  fortune. 
In  a  document  by  him  preserved  in  the  Bibliotheque 
Nationale  we  read:  'They  thought  me  a  better 
painter  than  I  was,  which  caused  me  to  be  often 
summoned  to  draw  plans  for  use  in  courts  of  law. 
Then  when  I  had  such  commissions  I  was  very  well 
paid." 

However,  his  superb  improvidence — for  one  may 
almost  call  it  such — delayed  anything  like  his  estab- 
lishment in  life,  for  we  find  him  at  the  age  of 
twenty-one  years  journeying  through  France  as  a 
sort  of  free-lance;  at  the  very  time,  indeed,  when 
Paracelsus  the  philosopher  at  thirty-seven  was  wan- 
dering, quite  as  ragged,  through  Germany.  Finally 
he  returned  to  his  own  country  and  settled  in  Saintes, 
about  1542,  promptly  married,  and  in  the  cour€e 
of  time  became  father  to  a  goodly  family,  which 
he  supported  by  his  work  of  surveying  the  salt 

[199] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

marshes  of  Saintonge  when  his  skill  as  a  worker  in 
glass  and  in  designing  was  not  in  demand. 

I  imagine  that  Master  Palissy,  Madame  and  the 
little  Palissys  got  on  very  comfortably  for  a  time. 
Had  not  the  Council  of  King  Francis  decided  to 
impose  a  salt  tax  on  the  Saintonge,  and  had  not  Mas- 
ter Bernard  been  commissioned  to  make  the  surveys 
of  the  salt  marshes  in  the  neighborhood  of  Saintes*? 

Probably  he  spent  much  of  his  time  in  "tracing 
lines  of  geometry,"  of  which  things  he  wrote,  "It 
is  well  known  that,  thanks  be  to  God,  I  am  not  al- 
together ignorant."  He  had  also  added  portrait- 
painting  to  his  accomplishments.  A  more  provident 
man  than  he  might  have  prospered  and  his  name 
have  been  forgotten.  While  the  impecunious  are 
not  always  to  be  rated  wise,  it  is  certain  that  Palissy's 
poverty  drove  him  to  the  achievement  of  his  fame  as 
a  potter  in  his  desperate  struggle  to  be  free  from  its 
bonds. 

One  day  as  Palissy  sat  disconsolate  outside  his 
door,  no  work  in  hand,  nothing  ahead  and  the  larder 
growing  empty  through  his  own  extravagances  and 
likewise  those  of  his  wife,  he  remembered  to  have 
seen,  sometime  about  the  year  1541,  during  his  wan- 
derings at  Avignon  or  at  Nimes,  a  cup  which,  as  he 
described  it  afterward,  "was  turned  and  enamelled 

[200] 


THE  ROMANCE  OF  A  POTTER 

with  so  much  beauty  that  from  that  time  I  entered 
into  controversy  with  my  own  thoughts,  recalling 
to  mind  several  suggestions  some  people  had  made 
to  me  in  fun  when  I  was  painting  portraits.  Then," 
continued  he,  "seeing  that  these  were  falling  out  of 
request  in  the  country  where  I  dwelt,  and  that  glass 
painting  also  was  little  patronized,  I  began  to  think 
that  if  I  should  discover  how  to  make  enamels  I 
could  make  earthen  vessels  and  other  things  very 
prettily,  because  God  had  gifted  me  with  some 
knowledge  of  drawing." 

Now,  Luca  della  Robbia  had  been  dead  some 
twenty-eight  years,  but  not  only  was  his  work  well 
known  throughout  Tuscany  and  other  Italian  states 
but  specimens  of  it  and  of  other  Italian  faience  had 
been  brought  into  France  by  Leonardo  da  Vinci, 
who  died  when  Palissy  was  in  his  eighth  year,  and 
later  by  Benvenuto  Cellini,  who  was  but  nine  years 
Palissy's  senior.  However,  Palissy  had  not  visited 
Paris  before  this  and  probably  he  knew  nothing  of 
the  Della  Robbias,  of  Leonardo,  or  of  Cellini,  and 
less  of  the  Italian  faience.  It  was  enough  for  him 
that  he  had  seen  a  wonderful  cup,  made  he  knew  not 
how,  but  produced  by  a  process  which,  it  is  quite 
possible,  he  imagined  to  be  a  lost  one,  a  process 
which  now  his  ingenious  imagination  was  seeking 

[201] 


/ 
THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

to  recover.  Had  fate  or  fortune  taken  him  to  Reims 
instead  of  to  Avignon,  he  would  never  have  thought 
of  competing  with  the  work  introduced  by  the  Flor- 
entines. But  in  those  days  of  different  intercourse 
he  had  seen  only  the  one  cup,  and  that  he  imagined 
to  be  unique;  consequently,  as  we  have  seen,  he  re- 
solved to  set  about  becoming  a  potter  himself. 

How  the  imagination  wreaths  around  that  mys- 
terious cup  which  inspired  Master  Bernard !  What 
was  it,  maiolica  of  Italy  or  of  Spain,  or  an  enameled 
cup  of  southern  France'?  Neither  of  these,  I  think. 
I  cannot  imagine  it  could  have  been  anything  short 
of  some  such  treasure  as  a  porcelain  cup  fetched 
from  China  by  some  Marco  Polo! 

At  any  rate,  Master  Bernard  set  about  the  busi- 
ness diligently  and  persistently.  Once  he  had  made 
up  his  mind  to  a  thing  there  was  no  changing  him, 
so  long  as  the  thing  he  had  set  his  mind  to  appeared 
to  him  better,  more  wise,  or  more  righteous  than 
that  which  would  take  its  place.  He  became  as  per- 
sistent a  potter  as  he  had  been  (and  as  he  was!) 
persistent  a  Protestant.  Luckily  it  was  for  him 
that  the  Constable  de  Montmorency,  who  was  sent 
by  the  king  to  quell  an  uprising  in  Saintes,  was  later 
to  come  across  Master  Bernard  and  to  take  up  with 
his  ingenious  compositions. 

[202] 


THE  ROMANCE  OF  A  POTTER 

Eight  long,  tedious,  heartbreaking  years  succeeded 
this  resolution,  during  the  course  of  which  his  powers 
of  endurance  and  splendid  physical  strength  were 
put  to  a  severe  test  in  his  attempts  to  find  a  suitable 
enamel  for  the  objects  he  made  out  of  the  earth  of 
the  neighborhood,  a  sort  of  pipe-clay.  Month  after 
month  and  year  after  year  came  sorrowful  failures 
when  he  was  seemingly  just  on  the  point  of  success. 
Without  caring  that  he  knew  nothing  concern- 
ing argillacious  earths,  he  set  himself  to  search 
out  enamels,  like  a  man  who  grooes  in  the  dark- 
ness. 

Whatever  else  he  may  have  been,  we  can  rest 
assured  that  he  was  thorough  and  practical  in  his 
craft.  That  so  long  a  time  elapsed  before  the  re- 
sults he  hoped  to  attain  were  reached  seems  a  proof 
to  confute  the  theory  often  advanced  that  he  had 
learned  the  secret  of  his  enamel  from  the  Hirschvo- 
gels  in  Nuremberg.  If  they  disclosed  any  part  of 
their  craft  to  him  when  he  was  roving  through  Ger- 
many, they  zealously  guarded  that  of  making  white 
enamel,  since  for  this  he  sought  so  long  and  arduously 
— indeed,  through  fifteen  years  of  patient  toil  and 
discouragement.  Abaquesne,  at  Rouen,  had  antici- 
pated him,  it  is  true,  but  it  is  just  because  it  chanced 
to  be  his  lot  to  have  to  seek  out  these  things  for  him- 

[203] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

self  that  his  works  were  endowed  with  marked  origi- 
nality. 

All  this  time  his  family  suffered  in  poverty.  We 
can  sympathize  with  his  wife,  certainly.  That 
Palissy  was  quite  out  of  his  right  mind  she  had  no 
doubt.  Was  he  not  sacrificing  everything  for — 
what  seemed  in  the  face  of  his  failures — nothing? 
It  is  hard  enough  to  believe  in  genius  in  our  own 
day,  when  miracles  are  no  longer  surprises.  What, 
then,  must  have  been  the  alienating  doubts  of  Mas- 
ter Bernard's  whole  family  as  they  saw  him,  day 
after  day,  absorbed  with  his  clays,  his  enamels,  and 
his  ovens,  while  they  'stood  by,  hungry  and  neg- 
lected !  The  colossal  selfishness  of  the  men  who  win 
against  all  odds  is  forgotten  afterward  and  forgiven, 
and  one  is  inclined  to  think  Palissy's  plaint  about 
the  lack  of  encouragement  of  his  friends  and  family 
more  of  a  screen  to  his  troubled  conscience  than  any- 
thing else.  When  a  man  gives  up  the  employment 
which  supports  his  wife  and  children  for  the  sake  of 
obstinately  attempting  to  discover  the  secret  of  mak- 
ing ornamental  dishes  like  one  he  has  seen  years 
before,  is  there  any  wonder  he  is  thought  to  be  mad? 
Even  in  these  Hays  a  family  would  ask  that  a  com- 
mission in  lunacy  be  appointed  to  look  into  his 
sanity. 

[204] 


THE  ROMANCE  OF  A  POTTER 

And  listen  to  his  own  testimony :  "Another  mis- 
fortune befell  me,  causing  me  great  annoyance,  which 
was  that,  running  short  of  wood,  I  was  obliged  to 
burn  the  palings  which  maintained  the  boundaries 
of  my  garden,  the  which  after  being  burned  I  had 
to  burn  the  tables  and  the  flooring  of  my  house 
in  order  to  cause  the  melting  of  the  second  com- 
position. I  was  in  such  agony  as  I  cannot  express" 
— not  a  word  about  the  agony  of  wife  and  children ! 
— "for  I  was  utterly  exhausted  and  withered  up  by 
my  work  and  the  heat  of  the  furnace;  during  more 
than  a  month  my  shirt  had  never  been  dry  upon 
me;  even  those  who  ought  to  have  helped  me  ran 
crying  through  the  town  that  I  was  burning  the 
planks  of  the  floors,  so  that  I  was  made  to  lose  my 
credit  and  was  thought  to  be  mad.  Others  said  that 
I  was  trying  to  coin  false  money,  and  I  went  about 
crouching  to  the  earth,  like  one  ashamed."  I  think 
that  what  Madame  Palissy  did  not  say  places  her 
in  the  hierarchy  of  our  marveling  esteem!  How- 
beit  I  write  of  a  hero  and  not  of  heroines.  Here, 
surely  seemed  to  be  a  second  Columbus  tossed  on  the 
stormy  seas  of  derision. 

But  finally,  in  1549,  the  success  of  the  secret  for- 
mula for  which  he  had  been  striving  was  attained 
as  the  fires  of  his  experimental  oven  cooled.     It  had 

[205] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

been  his  agonized  hope — the  last  straw  held  out  by 
Providence.  How  differently  they  all  regarded  him 
now!  Wife  and  children  forgave  him,  friends  re- 
turned to  him,  tradesmen  were  eager  to  give  him 
credit,  for  Bernard  Palissy  had  brought  renown  to 
their  town,  and  they  hailed  him  as  a  great  man  where 
but  the  day  before  they  would  have  driven  him  to  a 
madhouse.  Quickly  the  fame  of  his  achievements 
spread  far  and  near,  and  almost  immediately  he 
found  a  munificent  patron  in  Anne  de  Montmorency, 
the  great  constable,  while  to  the  king  and  the  queen 
mother  he  became  "worker  in  earth  and  inventor  of 
figulines"  by  royal  patent. 

Is  it  any  wonder  he  felt  justified  for  all  his  sac- 
rifices? He  could  now  give  his  wife  a  prouder 
place  than  any  she  had  ever  dreamed  of,  and  his 
children  would  be  educated  beyond  all  their  com- 
panions. Surely  it  was  worth  these  fifteen  years 
of  sorrow  and  suffering,  he  argued. 

Ah,  little  blue  book  with  the  gilt  morning-glories, 
the  aniline  frontispiece!  Courageous,  unflinching 
Master  Bernard;  brave,  suffering  madame! 

When  one  remembers  all  these  things  every  bit 
of  Palissy  ware  becomes  endowed  with  a  double  in- 
terest. It  is  distinguished  in  the  earlier  examples  by 
its  close  adherence  to  natural  forms,  not,  perhaps, 

[206] 


THE  ROMANCE  OF  A  POTTER 

to  be  considered  exactly  beautiful  according  to  the 
canons  of  art  in  our  day,  nevertheless  admirable  in 
many  of  its  qualities;  and  its  fidelity  to  nature  is 
so  remarkable  often  that  one  forgives  it  its  lack  of 
esthetic  attributes.  One  of  the  extant  examples  is 
a  large  plate  executed  in  enamel  faience.  It  is  cov- 
ered with  fishes,  reptiles,  Crustacea,  and  mollusks  in 
the  midst  of  the  modeled  representation  of  water, 
together  with  herbs  and  marine  plants.  It  is  re- 
markable for  the  minute  execution  of  its  details  and 
also  for  the  richness  of  the  enamel  giving  life  to  these 
wonderful  studies  from  nature.  Indeed,  these  rustic 
pieces,  so  admirable  in  their  original  way,  exhibit 
Palissy's  tendency  to  imitate  nature  with  exquisite 
realism  and  a  naturalist's  love  for  accuracy  of  detail. 
He  himself  was  so  pleased  with  his  success  that  he 
tells  us  live  lizards  often  came  to  admire  his  fabri- 
cations, and  that  a  dog  which  he  made  (the  same 
is  now  in  the  Dresden  Museum),  caused  many  real 
dogs  "to  growl  on  coming  near  it,  thinking  it  to  be 
alive." 

Palissy's  work  was  eagerly  sought  by  all  the  great 
nobles,  and  the  illustrious  constable  gave  into  his 
hands  the  task  of  decorating  the  Chateau  d'Ecouen, 
thereafter  one  of  the  marvels  of  its  time.  Alas! 
there  remains  nothing  of  this  work,  nor  of  the  fa- 

[207] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

mous  grotto  in  the  gardens  of  the  Tuileries,  with 
the  decoration  of  which  Catherine  de'  Medici  had  in- 
trusted him.  This  was  about  the  year  1565,  after 
Palissy  had  taken  his  family  from  La  Rochelle 
(where  he  had  been  for  several  years  after  leaving 
Saintes),  to  Paris  to  live.  It  was  during  the  period 
that  Master  Bernard  discoursed  to  the  learned  on 
topics  in  natural  philosophy  and  was  respectfully 
listened  to  at  a  crown  a  head,  a  large  lecture  entrance 
fee  for  those  days.  Palissy's  sons,  Nicolas  and 
Mathurin,  were  working  with  him  in  Paris,  as  en- 
tries in  the  royal  accounts  for  the  year  1570  show. 
Only  a  few  decades  ago  workmen  excavating  in  the 
gardens  of  the  Tuileries  unearthed  the  remains  of 
Palissy's  old  workshop,  and  later  discovered  some 
of  his  ovens. 

But  Master  Bernard  was  to  fall  upon  evil  days. 
He  was  a  Huguenot,  and  a  former  coreligionist  de- 
nounced him,  which  led  to  his  arrest  in  1588.  His 
property  had  previously  been  destroyed.  Owing  to 
royal  protection  he  survived  the  terrible  Massacre 
of  St.  Bartholomew's  Eve.  But  the  manner  in 
which  a  man  should  say  his  prayers  was  of  more  im- 
portance to  Henry  III  than  the  making  of  "iigulines 
of  earth,"  so  Master  Bernard  traveled  from  the  Tuil- 
eries to  the  Bastille.     His  friend  the  Due  de  May- 

[208] 


THE  ROMANCE  OF  A  POTTER 

ence  obtained  respite  for  him  through  clever  artifice ; 
finally  the  king  agreed  to  grant  him  a  pardon  if  he 
would  recant  the  heresy  of  his  Huguenot  faith. 
Palissy  indignantly  scorned  these  ignoble  terms. 

Shortly  after  Henry  IV  succeeded  Henry  III. 
Probably  kings  had  ceased  to  be  interested  in  gray- 
haired  potters  and  their  expenses.  At  any  rate, 
Master  Bernard  was  condemned  to  deatk.  Before 
the  fragile  clay  that  God  had  modeled  into  the 
cup  of  his  life  had  a  chance  to  be  dashed  to  earth 
by  hideous  bigotry,  his  soul  was  liberated  from  his 
worn-out  body,  and  the  headsman's  block  was  cheated 
of  the  grace  of  being  Master  Bernard's  last  pillow 
on  earth.     May  heaven  rest  his  soul! 

I  shall  never  forget,  little  blue  book,  how  Miss 
Solander  shed  a  tear  over  those  last  pages,  how  my 
own  eyes  were  not  dry.  Somehow  I  think  every- 
thing must  have  its  story,  and  when  I  am  in  Cleon's 
house  or  in  my  own,  looking  at  this  thing  or  at  that 
with  the  love  a  collector  holds  for  the  things  of 
yesterday,  I  am  not  content  with  the  thing  alone,  but 
my  thoughts  seek  out  the  memory  of  its  story.  At 
least  it  was  so  with  that  inimitable  sauciere  of  Mas- 
ter Bernard  of  blessed  memory ! 


[209] 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

ITALIAN    MAIOLICA 

WHETHER  one  is  a  general  collector  or 
a  collector  of  pottery  and  porcelain  in 
particular,  Italian  maiolica  will  be 
found  to  be  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  "lines," 
historically  as  well  as  intrinsically.  Pottery,  both 
soft  and  hard,  is  distinct  from  porcelain,  although 
the  term  "old  china"  is  commonly  used  to  embrace 
the  whole  field  of  ceramics — unfortunately,  I  think, 
as  it  is  of  importance  to  the  collector  to  be  precise 
in  the  matter  of  definitions. 

Pottery,  as  distinguished  from  porcelain,  is  formed 
of  potter's  clay  with  which  an  argillaceous  and  cal- 
careous marl  and  sand  have  been  mixed.  The 
wares  usually  designated  as  earthenware  are  soft 
pottery.  It  may  be  scratched  with  a  knife  or  file, 
and  it  is,  generally  speaking,  fusible  at  porcelain 
furnace  heat. 

Soft  pottery  may  be  divided  into  four  sorts:  un- 
glazed,  lustrous,  glazed,  and  enameled.  The  greater 
part  of  Egyptian,  Greek  Etruscan,  Roman  medieval 

[210] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

and  modern  pottery  is  unglazed,  lustrous,  or  glazed, 
while  the  centuries-later  maiolica  of  Italy  is  of  the 
fourth  sort;  that  is,  an  enameled  or  stanniferous 
glazed  ware,  the  art  of  making  which  was  originally 
learned,  we  may  suppose,  from  either  Moorish  pot- 
ters of  Majorca  (one  of  the  Balearic  Islands)  or  per- 
haps from  certain  Persian  sources. 

Italian  maiolica  was  originally  called  maiorica, 
a  name  which  later  gave  way  to  maiolica^  as  the 
Tuscans  more  often  wrote  it  that  way,  even  when 
referring  to  the  Island  of  Majorca,  as  one  may  guess 
from  the  rime  of  Dante,  where  is  to  be  found  refer- 
ence to  "Tm  Visola  di  Cipri  e  Maiolica.'"  The 
coarser  ware  of  half-maiolica — mezza-maiolica — is 
not  to  be  confused  with  the  true  maiolica,  which  is 
a  tin-enameled  pottery,  lustred,  although  the  term 
maiolica  is  generally  used  to  designate  the  ware  of 
both  sorts. 

The  Italians  ascribe  to  Luca  della  Robbia  the  dis- 
covery of  the  tin-glaze  sometime  prior  to  1438. 
We  have  no  dated  piece  of  Florentine  or  Tuscan 
maiolica  antedating  1477,  and  of  this  year  but  one 
dated  example.  The  next  earliest  dates — 1507  and 
1509 — appear  on  maiolica  of  the  Cafaggiolo  fab- 
rique. 

In  the  eighteenth  century,  as  Chaffers  tells  us, 

[211] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

Italian  maiolica  was  called  Raphael  Ware,  as  it  was 
believed,  for  a  time,  that  Raphael  himself  had  taken 
a  hand  at  decorating  some  of  it — an  idea  which 
quite  naturally  originated,  as  a  great  many  designs 
from  compositions  by  Raphael  and  other  great 
masters  appeared  on  maiolica  ware.  These,  how- 
ever, were  copied  from  drawings  and  engravings. 
The  best  period  of  this  pottery  was  subsequent  to 
Raphael's  death,  which  took  place  in  1520. 

A  Cafaggiolo  plate  in  the  Victoria  and  Al- 
bert Museum  possibly  depicts  Raphael  and  La 
Fornarina  watching  a  maiolica-decorator  at  work, 
suggesting,  I  think,  that  had  Raphael  himself  taken 
a  hand  at  maiolica-painting  that  fact  would  have  led 
the  artist  of  the  plate  to  show  Raphael  at  such  occu- 
pation instead  of  portraying  him  merely  as  an  on- 
looker. Again,  Raffaello  dal  Colle,  who  designed 
maiolica  for  the  wife  of  Guidobaldo  I,  Duke  of  Ur- 
bino,  may  have  been  confused  by  early  students 
with  Raffaello  Sanzio,  the  great  Raphael. 

Of  the  development  of  maiolica  in  Italy,  Fortnum 
says:  "In  the  twelfth,  thirteenth,  and  fourteenth 
centuries  native  wares  were  produced  in  various 
places,  some  of  which  still  exist  in  the  towers  and 
facades  of  churches,  and  in  the  facade  of  a  palace 
at  Bologna.     These  are  lead-glazed,  rudely  painted 

[212] 


ITALIAN  MAIOLICA 

or  with  single  colors,  and  in  some  instances  'sgraf- 
fiato/  proving  that  the  use  of  a  white  'slip'  or 
'engobe'  was  known  in  Italy  at  that  period,  as  af- 
firmed by  Passed,  who  further  asserts  that  in  1300 
the  art  assumed  a  more  decorative  character  under 
the  lords  of  Pesaro,  the  Malatestas.  An  even, 
opaque  white  surface  having  been  obtained,  the 
development  of  its  artistic  decoration  steadily  ad- 
vanced. The  colors  used  were  yellow,  green,  blue, 
and  black,  to  which  we  may  add  a  dull  brownish 
red,  noticed  in  some  of  the  Pisan  'bacini.'  Passeri 
states  that  the  reflection  of  the  sun's  rays  from  the 
concave  surfaces  of  these  'bacini'  at  Pesaro  was  most 
brilliant,  and  hence  it  has  been  wrongly  inferred 
that  they  were  enriched  with  metallic  lustre." 

For  many  years  after  the  discovery  or  at  least  the 
application  of  tin-glaze  to  pottery  in  Italy,  large 
works  were  popular.  But  before  the  end  of  the  first 
half  of  the  sixteenth  century  this  practice  had  lost 
its  vogue.  There  was,  on  the  other  hand,  an  in- 
creased demand  for  the  tiles,  plates,  etc.,  of  the 
maiolica,  an  encouragement  that  led  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  numerous  maiolica  potteries  throughout 
northern  and  central  Italy,  Romagna  and  Tuscany 
leading,  and  Urbino  and  Pesaro  rising  to  importance 
in  the  manufacture  of  this  enameled  ware.     Both 

[213] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

Pesaro  and,  later,  Gubbio,  had  attained  fame  for 
the  pearly,  the  golden,  and  the  ruby  lustre  glaze 
given  their  wares,  that  of  Gubbio  proving  the  finest 
in  this  respect.  Deruta  has  also  laid  claim  to  the 
introduction  of  the  beautiful  madreperla  lustre.  A 
few  years  ago  the  author  visited  this  tiny,  out-of-the- 
way  village  to  inspect  the  hotega  of  the  modern 
maiolica-makers,  and  well  recalls  the  ingenious  argu- 
ments advanced  by  the  gifted  director  in  support  of 
Deruta's  claim,  which  left  one  convinced  until 
Pesaro  savants  in  turn  sought  to  appropriate  the 
glory  for  their  own  town. 

Fortnum  says  "the  Piedmontese  and  Lombard 
cities  do  not  appear  to  have  encouraged  the  pot- 
ter's art  to  an  equal  extent  in  the  fifteenth  and  the 
sixteenth  century,  and  that  neither  can  we  learn  of 
any  excellence  attained  in  Venice  till  the  establish- 
ment of  Deruta  and  Pesaro  artists  in  that  city  in 
the  middle  of  the  latter  period."  Fortnum  says: 
"Perhaps  commerce  did  for  the  Queen  of  the  Adri- 
atic by  the  importation  of  Rhodian,  Damascus,  and 
other  eastern  wares  what  native  industry  supplied 
to  the  pomp  and  luxury  of  the  hill  cities  of  Umbria; 
for  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  finer  sorts  of 
enameled  or  glazed  pottery,  decorated  by  artistic 
hands,  were  attainable  only  by  the  richer  class  of 

[214] 


ITALIAN  MAIOLICA 

purchasers,  more  modest  wares  or  wooden  trenchers 
and  ancestral  copper  vessels  contenting  the  middle 
class."  The  art  of  maiolica  flourished  likewise  in 
Ferrara,  Rimini,  and  Ravenna.  The  Umbrian  pot- 
ters probably  did  not  adopt  the  use  of  white  stan- 
niferous glaze  before  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury. 

Federigo,  who  succeeded  to  the  Duchy  of  Urbino 
in  14/]^,  was  a  patron  of  the  arts  and  a  great  collec- 
tor. After  his  death,  in  1482,  his  son  Guidobaldo 
continued  Federigo's  patronage  of  the  ceramic  art. 
The  introduction  of  the  maiolica  enamel  did  not, 
happily,  lead  to  the  abandonment  of  the  metallic 
colors  and  prismatic  glazes  of  the  earlier  potters. 
Authorities  are  agreed  that  the  retention  of  these 
metallic  colors  and  prismatic  glazes  stimulated 
maiolica  manufacture  in  other  localities.  The  bo- 
tega  which  Maestro  Giorgio  established  in  Gubbio 
at  this  period  was  probably  the  great  center  for 
the  golden  and  ruby  metallic  lustre  maiolica.  In 
his  handbook,  "Maiolica,"  Fortnum  says:  "Some 
technicality  in  the  process  of  the  manufacture,  some 
local  advantage,  or  some  secret  in  the  composition, 
almost  a  monopoly  of  its  use  was  established  at 
Gubbio,  for  we  have  the  evidence  of  well-known 
examples  that  from  the  end  of  the  first  to  the  be- 

[215] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

ginning  of  the  last  quarter  of  the  fifteenth  century 
many  pieces  painted  by  the  artists  of  Pesaro,  Urbino, 
and  Castel  Durante  were  taken  there  for  the  lustre 
embellishment." 

In  Urbino  the  manufacture  of  maiolica  reached 
its  culminating  point  in  1540,  in  which  year  Orazio 
Fontana,  Urbino's  greatest  maiolica  artist,  entered 
the  service  of  the  duke.  From  1580  Urbino 
maiolica  declined. 

There  are  exceptionally  fine  examples  of  early 
Italian  maiolica  in  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of 
Art  and  in  other  public  and  private  collections  in 
America.  These  the  collector  may  study  to  ad- 
vantage. While  the  pieces  of  supreme  importance, 
like  the  canvases  of  the  old  masters,  are  not  to  be 
had  for  a  song,  still,  "finds"  are  possible,  and  even 
later  pieces  of  maiolica  are  beautiful  and  fully  worth 
while.  Such  pieces,  too,  with  the  interesting  history 
of  the  earlier  objects  that  inspired  them,  should  ap- 
peal to  the  collector.  Perhaps  if  Italian  maiolica 
were  more  studied  and  understood  in  this  country  it 
would  be  more  popular  with  collectors,  but  just  be- 
cause so  few  of  them  are  versed  in  its  evolution  the 
advantage  accrues  to  the  collector  who  is  wide  awake 
enough  to  look  about  him  in  time.     In  passing  it 

[216] 


Courtesy  Metropolitan  ^U^scum  of  Art 

Early  Italian  Maiolica  Plates 

Deruta,   16th   Century 


Pesaro,   1520-1535 
Gubbio,   16th  Century 


Urbino,    16th   Century 

Castel  Durante,   16th   Century 


Courtesy  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 

Copies  of  Roman  Millefiori.  Glass    Made  in  Murano,  19th  Century 
Two  Ancient   Roman    Millefiore   Glass   Bowls 


ITALIAN  MAIOLICA 

should  be  noted  that  there  is  much — one  may  well 
say  quantities — of  modern  maiolica  to  be  found  in 
the  shops.  Much  of  this  is  very  beautiful,  but  the 
collector  will  soon  have  no  trouble  in  distinguishing 
it  from  the  old,  even  when  the  modern  happens  to 
reproduce  the  forms  and  designs  of  the  early  pieces. 


[217] 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

GLASS    OF    A    THOUSAND    FLOWERS 

TIME  has  crumbled  many  a  granite  monument 
erected  to  the  memory  of  monarchs  of  early 
Egyptian  dynasties,  but  a  tiny  scent-bottle 
of  yellow  glass,  with  the  name  Amenophis  worked 
upon  it  in  blue,  has  come  down  to  us  from  the 
Golden  Age  of  the  Pharaohs.  King  Amenophis 
little  guessed  that  his  fragile  gift  at  life's  parting 
from  his  Queen  Thi  would  survive  the  vicissitudes 
of  the  unguessed  ages  that  have  treated  the  ped- 
estal of  his  Colossus  at  Thebes  with  such  scant 
courtesy.  Yet  here  we  may  hold  it  in  the  palm  of 
a  hand,  a  lovely  trinket  whose  fragility  has  defied 
the  boast  of  bronze  or  the  strength  of  stone!  As 
Pliny  says,  it  is  no  easy  matter  to  give  novelty  to  old 
subjects,  authority  to  new,  to  impart  lustre  to  rusty 
things,  light  to  the  obscure  and  mysterious.  Yet  he 
who  writes  of  antiques  and  curios  may  find  the  sub- 
ject of  old  glass  so  wide  a  field  in  which  to  browse 
that  its  restraints  seem  few  indeed  and  its  interest 
of  broad  appeal. 

[218] 


GLASS  OF  A  THOUSAND  FLOWERS 

The  millefiori  glass  of  yesterday  and  to-day  offers 
to  the  collector  a  fascinating  study.  It  is  the  "Glass 
of  a  Thousand  Flowers,"  a  pretty  name  the  Italians 
gave  it  centuries  ago — mille^  a  thousand,  and  fiori^ 
flowers.  Don't  you  remember  when  you  were  little, 
very  little,  the  round,  heavy  glass  paper-weights  into 
which  you  could  look  like  a  crystal-gazer  and  find 
mysteriously  embedded  flower-like  forms  of  colored 
glass*?  How  you  puzzled  grandfather's  head,  too, 
when  you  asked  him  questions  about  it.  These  old 
millefiori  paper-weights — long  out  of  fashion,  alas  I 
— were  bought  on  faith  as  curiosities,  and  only  the 
sophisticated  age  that  decreed  such  marvels  unfitting 
the  dignity  of  maturity  relegated  them  to  hiding- 
places  now  for  the  most  part  forgotten.  The  won- 
derful striated  marbles,  the  attractive  "glassies"  of 
our  own  Golden  Age,  maintained  with  us  the  tradi- 
tion of  attachment ;  and  now  we  have  once  more  be- 
gun to  display  the  paper-weights  of  the  Thousand 
Flowers,  and  antiquarians  are  doing  such  brisk  busi- 
ness in  them  that  manufacturers  are  almost  en- 
couraged to  place  on  the  market  again  these  interest- 
ing objects  of  millefiori  glass. 

Since  the  time  when  the  observing  Herodotus 
wrote  that  the  sacred  crocodiles  of  Memphis  wore 
ear-rings  of  melted  stone,  the  collecting  of  glass  has 

[219] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

encouraged  its  finer  development.  The  ancient 
glass-workers  were  proud  enough  to  sign  fine  pieces, 
though  these  are  excessively  rare.  There  was,  for 
instance,  "Africanus,  citizen  of  Carthage,  artist  in 
glass."  Nero  was  an  ardent  collector  of  fine  pieces 
of  glass,  collecting  them  in  his  own  peculiar  manner, 
as  we  may  infer  from  such  anecdotes  as  that  which 
has  already  been  related  of  Petronius  having  broken 
a  precious  bowl  (probably  of  murrhine)  to  atoms 
just  before  his  death,  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  its 
falling  into  the  grasp  of  the  Emperor.  So  greatly 
was  it  prized  at  the  time  that  its  value  had  been 
placed  at  a  sum  now  equivalent  to  $250,000 !  The 
very  high  prices  paid  to-day  by  museums  for  bits 
of  antique  glass  are  very  likely  to  be  far  less  than 
the  same  objects  brought  in  Roman  times;  this,  of 
course,  refers  only  to  glass  of  high  artistic  quality, 
such  as  would  have  commanded  the  attention  of  con- 
noisseurs contemporary  with  its  product. 

"Who,"  says  Dr.  Johnson  in  "The  Rambler," 
"when  he  saw  the  first  sand  or  ashes  by  a  casual  in- 
tenseness  of  heat  melted  into  metallic  form,  rugged 
with  excrescences  and  crowded  with  impurities, 
would  have  imagined  that  in  the  shapeless  lump  lay 
concealed  so  many  conveniences  of  life  as  would  in 
time  constitute  a  great  part  of  the  happiness  of  the 

[220] 


GLASS  OF  A  THOUSAND  FLOWERS 

worlds  Thus  was  the  first  artificer  of  glass  occu- 
pied, though  without  his  own  knowledge  or  expecta- 
tion. He  was  facilitating  and  prolonging  enjoy- 
ment of  light,  enlarging  the  avenues  of  science  and 
conferring  the  highest  and  most  lasting  pleasure ;  he 
was  enabling  the  student  to  contemplate  nature  and 
the  beauty  to  behold  herself." 

We  need  not  go  into  the  early  history  of  glass 
here,  more  than  to  say  the  ancients  were  highly 
skilled  in  the  making  of  mosaic  and  millefiori  glass, 
their  products  inspiring  the  millefiori  glass  of  the 
Venetians  and  their  followers  in  Europe  and  Amer- 
ica. One  cannot  do  better  than  to  quote  here 
M.  A.  Wallace-Dunlop's  "Glass  in  the  Old  World," 
a  most  interesting  and  instructive  work,  unfortu- 
nately long  out  of  print.  In  this  volume  the  author 
says : 

No  method  of  glass  working  has  probably  excited  more 
attention  than  the  wonderfully  minute  mosaics  found  scat- 
tered over  the  world  both  in  beads  and  amulets.  Old 
writers  have  exhausted  their  ingenuity  in  conjecturing  the 
secret  of  their  manufacture.  Many  of  them  are  far  too 
minute  for  human  eyes  to  have  executed,  but  like  many 
other  marvels  the  explanation  is  simple  when  once  discov- 
ered. They  were  made  (and  are  now  successfully  imitated 
in  Murano)  by  arranging  long  slender  glass  rods  of  various 
colors  so  as  to  form  a  pattern,  a  picture,  or  the  letters  of 

[221] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

a  name,  and  then  fusing  them  together  and  while  still  warm 
the  rod  or  cane  so  formed  could  be  drawn  out  to  almost  any 
length,  the  pattern  becoming  perhaps  microscopically  small, 
but  always  retaining  its  distinctiveness.  A  tube  of  glass 
treated  in  the  same  manner  never  loses  a  minute  hole  in  the 
middle.  Thin  slices  cut  off  such  a  rod  would  present  on 
each  side  (face)  the  exact  picture  (just  as  the  pattern  ap- 
pears when  slicing  a  cucumber)  or  pattern  originally  ar- 
ranged. When  this  idea  had  been  once  suggested,  thou- 
sands of  patterns  could  have  been  invented,  and  slices  from 
these  rods  placed  in  liquid  blue  or  other  colored  glass,  and 
cast  in  a  mould  and  ground  into  shape,  gave  rise  to  the 
endless  combinations  of  Greek  or  Roman  workers — The 
Millefiori  glass  of  the  Venetian  republic  was  simply  a  re- 
vival of  this  old  industry.  .  .  .  Under  the  Ptolemies  the 
Egyptians  acquired  a  rare  perfection  in  mosaic !  We  have, 
so  far  as  I  know,  no  Roman  mosaic  or  millefiori  glass  ante- 
dating the  reign  of  Augustus.  It  is  in  the  Augustan  age 
that  we  first  learn  the  name  of  a  mosaic  glass  artist,  Pro- 
culus  of  Perinthus,  to  whom  the  Alexandrian  merchants 
erected  a  statue. 

The  building  of  St.  Mark's  in  Venice,  begun  in 
1159,  gave  impetus  to  Italian  glass  manufacture. 
With  the  fall  of  Constantinople  nearly  a  half- 
century  later,  many  Greeks,  skilled  artists  in  glass, 
undoubtedly  made  their  way  to  Venice  and  took 
thither  the  secrets  of  their  trade.  Certain  it  is  that 
the  early  glass-workers  of  Venice  and  of  Murano, 
where  l^ter  the  glass  industry  centered,  gave  curious 
and   interested   study   to   the   old   mosaics   of   the 

[222] 


GLASS  OF  A  THOUSAND  FLOWERS 

ancients  and  in  due  course  rediscovered  the  art  of 
milleiiori  and  perfected  it  in  a  manner  that  would 
have  caused  the  Romans  to  open  their  eyes  in 
astonishment.  We  must  not  forget  that  with  the 
ancients  a  crystalline  glass  was  of  great  rarity, 
though  colored  glass  was  common  enough.  Thus  the 
crystalline  products  of  the  Venetians  were  an 
achievement  reserved  for  later  centuries,  and  this 
white  glass,  in  combination  with  the  colored  glasses 
was  so  skilfully  employed  by  the  workmen  and 
artists  of  the  Murano  glass  factories  that  nothing  has 
surpassed  the  Venetian  products  in  milleiiori  for 
sheer  ingenuity  and  beauty.  Often,  of  course,  mille- 
iiori work  was  carried  to  the  extreme  of  becoming  less 
a  thing  of  beauty  than  a  tour  de  force.  However, 
the  collector  will  iind  interest  in  all  pieces  of  the  sort, 
and  their  range  was  enormous.  The  glass  of  Venice 
was  famous  for  its  extraordinary  lightness  and  this 
added  to  its  vogue.  The  Chaplain  of  Louis  XIV, 
Rene  Frangois,  amusingly  warned  the  world  that 
Murano  was  iilling  Europe  with  its  fantasies  of 
glass;  but  rare  enough  are  the  early  specimens  of 
Venetian  manufacture,  more  precious  now  than  their 
weight  in  gold. 

After  all,  there  must  always  remain  the  zest  of  the 
chase  in  the  spirit  of  the  true  collector,  without  which 

[223] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

wonderful  finds  would  never  have  been  made,  though 
we  need  not  to  go  to  the  extent  of  the  Countess  of 
Fiesque,  a  lady  of  Louis  XIV's  court.  This  lady 
died  at  Fontainebleau  in  great  poverty  at  an  ad- 
vanced age.  Historians  of  the  gossip  of  the  day 
have  laid  her  indigent  circumstances  at  the  door  of 
the  rascally  man  of  business,  but  I  fancy  her  passion 
for  mirrors  had  something  to  do  with  it.  When  al- 
most in  need  of  bread  she  astonished  her  friends  by 
purchasing  an  enormously  expensive  mirror.  "I  had 
a  piece  of  land,"  she  said  in  extenuation,  "which 
brought  me  in  nothing  but  com.  I  sold  it,  and  the 
money  procured  this  mirror.  Have  I  not  managed 
wonderfully  to  possess  this  beautiful  glass  instead 
of  dull  corn?"  Doubtless  the  countess  did  manage 
wonderfully;  contentment  is  a  great  thing! 

Seven  hundred  years  of  glass-making  in  Venice 
produced  an  experience  that  was  useful  to  the  rest  of 
Europe  and  finaljy  to  America.  Much  millefiore 
glass  has  been  manufactured  in  the  United  States. 
The  Pennsylvania  Museum  in  Philadelphia  is  espe- 
cially rich  in  examples  of  it.  There  are  also  many 
private  collectors  of  millefiore  glass  in  this  country, 
some  collecting  specimens  in  general,  others  confin- 
ing themselves  to  examples  of  American  manufac- 
ture,   while   others   specialize   in   millefiore   paper- 

[224] 


GLASS  OF  A  THOUSAND  FLOWERS 

weights  already  referred  to.  The  late  Dr.  Edwin 
Atlee  Barber,  a  noted  authority  on  American  glass, 
gave  in  the  Pennsylvania  Museum  Bulletin  the  fol- 
lowing information  concerning  the  process  of  its 
making : 

The  glass  rods  used  in  the  preparation  of  modern  mille- 
fiori  glass  are  usually  made  in  metal  moulds  of  compara- 
tively large  size.  The  interior  may  be  circular  or  scal- 
loped. Into  one  of  these  moulds  ropes  of  colored  glass 
are  arranged  in  the  pattern  desired,  to  which,  when  taken 
out,  two  workmen  attach  iron  rods,  one  at  each  end  of  the 
mass,  and  draw  it  out  until  it  is  of  the  requisite  slenderness. 
The  design  retains  its  exact  proportions  through  the  entire 
length  and  is  as  perfect  in  a  rod  of  an  eighth  of  an  inch 
diameter  as  in  the  original  thick  cylinder.  If  an  animal  is 
to  be  represented  the  mould  is  cut  into  the  exact  shape  and 
when  the  glass  is  released  and  drawn  out  each  detail  of 
legs,  tail,  ears  and  other  parts  is  uniformly  reproduced  in 
solid  color  so  that  even  in  the  tiniest  representation  of  the 
figure  every  part  appears  to  be  perfectly  formed.  Some- 
times a  cane  will  be  composed  of  many  threads  of  various 
colors  and  designs,  each  of  which  has  been  formed  in  this 
manner,  arranged  around  a  central  rod  and  welded  together. 
When  the  rods  are  finished  they  are  broken  into  small 
pieces,  or  cut  into  uniform  lengths  or  into  thin  slices,  ac- 
cording to  the  sort  of  paperweights  or  other  objects  to  be 
made.  Into  an  iron  ring  the  size  of  a  paperweight  a  cushion 
of  molten  glass  is  dropped  and  while  soft,  the  sections  of 
rods  are  laid  on  the  surface  or  stuck  in  it  side  by  side  in 
a  regular  pattern,  the  tops  of  the  rods  being  pressed  into 
a  rounded  or  convex  form.     Over  all  more  of  the  melted 

[225] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

glass  is  poured  and  the  surface  rounded  into  hemispherical 
shape  by  means  of  concave  spatula  of  moistened  wood.  The 
last  process  consists  in  polishing  the  surface  of  the  curved 
top  and  the  flat  base  after  the  ball  has  been  again  heated. 

Dr.  Barber  was  authority  for  the  statement  that 
the  millefiore  paper-weights  found  their  way  into 
America  from  St.  Louis  in  Alsace-Lorraine  (first  to 
produce  paper-weights  of  the  sort,  circa  1840)  and 
from  Baccarat  in  France.  To  the  manufactories  of 
the  latter  town  we  look  for  the  finest  of  the  European 
millefiore  paper-weights.  At  first  the  filigree  rods,  cut 
or  uncut,  were  imported;  but  soon  American  glass- 
workers  turned  their  attention  to  the  complete  pro- 
duction, and  we  may  mark  the  period  of  i860  to 
1875  ^s  th^t  of  the  heyday  of  American-made  mille- 
fiori  glass. 

It  must  not  be  thought  that  all  the  American  mille- 
fiori  glass  has  been  picked  up  or  picked  over;  there  is 
much  of  it  remaining  to  reward  vigilant  search  and 
the  collector  will  find  it  well  worth  going  after. 
Out-of-the-way  villages  in  the  East  and  South  still 
secrete  many  such  pieces,  and  so  does  the  householder 
of  the  Middle  West;  while  one  finds  Pacific-ward 
examples  of  the  old  Glass  of  a  Thousand  Flowers 
that  had  so  great  a  popularity  before  the  Centennial 
turned  the  country  to  fresh  ingenuities. 

[226] 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

ANTIQUES    OF    PERSIA    AND   OF    INDIA 

ONCE  upon  a  time  an  old  gentleman  moved 
into  the  house  across  the  street.  Whence 
he  came  no  one  knew,  no  one  ever  came  to 
know.  His  name  was  Kyttyle — Major  Kyttyle. 
As  midsummer  marked  his  advent,  he  probably  felt 
properly  attired  when  he  appeared  on  the  lawn  that 
first  day,  to  survey  his  new  domain,  in  a  basket- 
shaped  hat  of  straw  and  a  suit  of  East-India-looking 
stuff.  Major  Kyttyle's  face  was  seamed  and 
bronzed.  I  imagine  his  hair  would  have  been  as 
white  as  the  snows  of  Dhawalaghiri  had  it  not  been 
as  extinct  as  the  Hippuritidae,  revealing  a  shining 
pink  dome  as  reflecting  as  the  pool  of  Anuradhapura 
at  sunset,  visible  as  now  and  then  he  would  lift  his 
hat  to  mop  his  brow. 

Major  Kyttyle's  installation  was  followed  by  the 
arrival  of  countless  foreign-looking  trunks  and  boxes 
and  the  neighborhood  naturally  wondered  what  on 
earth  the  major  had  in  them.     Mrs.  Minch  was  of 

[227] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

the  opinion  that  a  lone  man  could  have  no  use  for 
such  a  lot  of  truck.  Mrs.  Bittles  ventured  the 
opinion  that  Major  Kyttyle  might  not  be  so  "lone" 
after  all ;  he  might  have  a  family  and  it  might  arrive 
later.  "Families"  usually  did.  Mrs.  Minch  only 
sniffed.  "I  can  tell  a  bachelor  anywhere,"  she  de- 
clared with  conviction.     And  she  could. 

However,  although  no  family  came  upon  the  scene, 
a  whole  menagerie  arrived  one  by  one,  from  distant 
parts,  to  keep  the  major  company  and  to  scandalize 
the  town.  There  was  a  pet  monkey,  a  poll  parrot, 
a  Persian  cat,  and  a  globe  of  diaphanous-tailed  gold- 
fish the  like  of  which  had  never  been  dreamed  of 
thereabouts  and  which  quite  put  to  rout  the  two 
gilded  minnows  owned  by  the  Pickhams,  which  till 
then  had  been  the  only  exotics  in  the  district  and  had 
lent  a  certain  distinction  to  the  Pickhams  to  which, 
socially,  their  breeding  did  not  entitle  them. 

As  time  went  on  Major  Kyttyle  brought  to  him  a 
few  congenial  spirits  and  yet  the  little  group  really 
found  out  nothing  about  the  major's  past  beyond  the 
fact  that  he  had  lived  in  the  Far  East  for  years. 
Why  he  had  come  to  America  no  one  knew.  Why 
he  had  settled  in  our  uneventful  valley  no  one  could 
guess.  In  fact,  deliberately  to  choose  the  spot  was 
thought  to  be  an  indication  of  mental  weakness. 

[228] 


ANTIQUES  OF  PERSIA  AND  OF  INDIA 

But  if  there  is  anything  that  the  major  was  not,  that 
thing  is  mentally  weak.  No  one  else  could  have 
had  the  will  power  and  ingenuity  to  evade  as  success- 
fully as  did  this  gentleman  of  mystery,  the  life-his- 
tory disclosures  sought  by  the  Minches  and  others 
who  came  to  "know"  the  major. 

Notwithstanding  Mrs.  Minch's  earlier  disapproval 
of  the  number  of  trunks  and  boxes  which  the  "lone 
man"  appeared  to  have  accumulated,  she  came  in 
time  to  revise  her  opinion  when  it  was  discovered 
that,  though  decent,  the  major's  wardrobe  had  not 
comprised  his  luggage,  whereas  wonderful  objects  of 
Oriental  art  at  once  made  it  clear  that  the  trunks  and 
boxes  had  been  put  to  a  very  excellent  and  approved 
good  use  when  their  unpacking  found  the  major's 
house  adorned  with  treasures  in  the  way  of  pottery, 
brasses,  rugs,  damascened  arms,  Persian  miniatures, 
Indian  enamels,  gem-encrusted  jades,  and  what  not. 

Frankly,  Major  Kyttyle  might  have  been  as  miser- 
able with  his  treasures  as  was  Midas  with  his  en- 
chantment had  it  not  been  that  some  of  his  neighbors 
were  persons  of  culture  and  themselves  not  only  ap- 
preciative of  art  but  versed  in  some  of  its  branches. 
Otherwise  the  major  would  have  had  to  depend  on 
whist,  which,  by  the  way,  he  played  poorly  and  to 
which  he  was  devoted. 

[229] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

As  for  the  menagerie,  it  served  to  bring  out  the  fact 
that  the  major  adored  children.  His  yard  was  al- 
ways full  of  them  after  school  let  out.  At  first  those 
fond  mothers  who  could  not  be  persuaded  that  the 
major's  several  East-Indian  servants  were  not  one 
and  the  same  with  the  tribe  of  the  son  of  Hagar,  were 
much  distressed,  but  when  these  did  not  steal  forth 
like  pied  pipers,  they  concluded  that  perhaps  they 
were  n't  gypsies  after  all. 

Good  old  Major  Kyttyle,  how  grateful  I  am  that, 
mysterious  though  you  were,  you  permitted  me  to 
browse  for  hours  among  the  curious  and  beautiful 
things  of  the  Orient  that  appealed  to  my  child-fancy  I 
And  the  marvelous  tales  you  would  tell  us  of  their 
history!  How  patient  you  were  with  our  eager 
queries!  You  should  have  been  attached  to  some 
great  museum,  to  interpret  is  hoardings  to  the  soul 
of  the  people. 

It  was  in  your  house,  in  the  house  of  the  stranger 
who  had  come  among  us,  that  I  formed  some  knowl- 
edge of  the  arts  of  India  and  of  Persia,  a  knowledge 
that  made  some  of  the  beautiful  things  which  had 
found  their  way  from  the  Far  East  into  my  own 
home  greater  joys  to  behold  than  ever  before. 

I  suppose  I  might  have  taken  down  one  of  the 
heavy  volumes  of  that  vast  encyclopedia  which  so 

[230] 


ANTIQUES  OF  PERSIA  AND  OF  INDIA 

formidably  thwarted  youth's  enterprise  though  ad- 
vertised to  foster  it,  and  have  read  therein  much  of 
what  was  told  me  in  less  pedantic  and  less  academic 
style  by  the  major. 

If  I  have  seemed  to  linger  beyond  the  limits  of  a 
preface  it  is  not  that  I  started  out  to  write  a  eulogy 
of  Major  Kyttyle,  but  rather  that  in  what  I  am  say- 
ing I  hope  there  can  be  found  some  hint  of  the  truest 
sort  of  collecting,  the  noblest  sort  of  a  collector — 
one  who  uses  his  collection  as  a  preacher  uses  his  text, 
happily  discoursing  to  attentive  ears  and  not  shutting 
himself  up  with  his  treasures,  like  a  medieval  monk 
of  old  with  book  in  cell. 

The  good  major  went  to  his  rest  long  since.  We 
had  supposed  him  out  of  the  land  of  India,  not  only 
because  we  gleaned  from  his  stories  that  he  had 
spent  long  years  in  service  there,  but  also  because  of 
his  attachment  for  the  arts  of  India,  which  he  seemed 
to  hold  above  those  of  Persia.  But  when  his  grave 
was  marked,  the  granite  shaft  provided  in  his  will 
as  a  last  luxury  bore  simply  this  legend,  ''Kyttyle  of 
Khorassan''  Mrs.  Minch  was  jubilant.  "What 
did  I  tell  you*?  A  Persian !  One  never  knows  what 
with  these  mysterious  people." 

It  is  only  within  the  last  half-dozen  years  that  the 
arts  of  India  and  of  Persia  have  attracted  much  at- 

[231] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

tention  with  Americans  in  general.  Happily,  we 
are  out  of  that  stage  where  everything  Asiatic  is 
classed  as  either  "Turkish"  or  "Chinese."  The  field 
here  for  collection  is  a  broad  one  and  naturally  em- 
braces a  myriad  of  objects.  Private  collections  and 
public  collections  of  the  arts  of  Persia  and  of  India, 
including  those  of  Ceylon,  are  growing  apace.  Good 
things  and  fine  things  are  appearing  in  public  sales 
and  are  still  to  be  picked  up  in  antique-shops  by  the 
discriminating  one  who  has  taken  the  trouble  to  study 
the  subject.  Fortunately,  the  collector  now  has  at 
hand  such  excellent  books  for  reference  as  the  various 
works  by  Ananda  Coomaraswamy,  Vincent  Smith, 
Martin,  Birdwood,  Havell,  Hendley,  and  others. 

Of  Persian  objets  d'art  an  anoymous  writer  in 
the  article  on  Persia  in  "The  Everyman  Encyclo- 
paedia" has  said: 

The  arts  and  crafts  of  Persia  have  suffered  terribly  from 
the  state  of  misrule.  Always  artistic  by  nature,  many 
beautiful  arts  were  theirs,  the  secret  of  which  has  been  for- 
gotten through  the  years  of  civil  war  and  trouble.  Among 
them  the  exquisite  lustre-ware,  charming  in  design  and  color- 
ing, is  now  difficult  to  obtain.  The  enamel  work  for  which 
they  were  once  famous  is  a  lost  art;  formerly  tiles  of  this 
work,  exquisite  in  color  and  beautiful  in  pattern,  were  freely 
produced,  and  many  wonderful  specimens  have  been  saved 
from  ancient  ruins,  and  many  are  still  the  glory  of  mosques 
and  shrines;  the  predominating  color  was  a  very  beautiful 

[232] 


ANTIQUES  OF  PERSIA  AND  OF  INDIA 

turquoise  blue  in  various  shades,  and  a  red-golden  lustre 
which  gave  the  work  a  peculiar  iridescence.  Jugs  and  basins 
in  this  enamel  work  have  been  saved,  exceedingly  beautiful 
in  form  and  pattern.  Silver  work  and  brass  work  was  an 
ancient  industry;  very  little  is  done  now.  Carved  wood, 
inlaid  with  ivory  and  mother-of-pearl,  is  still  made  to  some 
extent,  also  seal-cutting.  The  Persian  art  which  flourished 
in  ancient  times  influenced  Greek,  Roman  and  Byzantine  art, 
and  was  the  father  of  Saracenic  art  and  architecture,  which 
has  travelled  far  since  its  birth. 

Persia  has  ever  been  famed  for  its  textiles — ^not 
only  embroideries  and  printed  cottons  but  marvelous 
rugs  which  stand  supreme  in  beauty.  The  old  rugs 
of  Persia  were  ancestors  of  the  carpet  of  other  lands. 
In  this  connection  it  is  worth  noting  that  the  Persians 
never  made  themselves  ridiculous  by  the  application 
of  inappropriate  design.  You  will  not  find  an  old 
Persian  rug  patterned  with  formal  bouquets  tied  with 
blue  ribbons,  suggesting  a  gift  being  trodden  under- 
foot. A  Persian  floral  patterned  carpet  will  suggest 
flowers  and  verdue  in  their  wild  state  as  the  stroller 
might  chance  to  find  them. 

Although  the  impress  of  the  art  of  the  Chinese 
ceramicist  and  of  the  shawl-weavers  of  Cashmere 
exerted  some  influence  upon  the  Persians,  still  the  art 
of  Persia  from  earliest  times  has  retained  a  national 
distinction.     Nearly  all  are  objects  from  the  earlier 

[233] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

periods  now  to  be  met  with  date  from  the  reign  of 
the  shah  Abbas  the  Great  (1586-1628)  when  the 
native  art  manufacturers  reached  their  greatest  de- 
gree of  excellence.  Thence  onward  came  the  de- 
cline. 

We  have  only  to  consider  the  fact  that  artistic 
ornamentation  was  applied  to  innumerable  objects  in 
daily  service  to  realize  how  widely  diffused  was  the 
taste  for  art  among  the  Persians.  They  have  truly 
been  always  an  art-loving  people.  Some  one  has 
aptly  remarked  that  every  home  in  India  is  a  nursery 
of  art,  and  I  think  this  must  once  have  been  true  of 
the  home  in  Persia.  Apropos  of  Persian  ornament 
it  may  be  remarked  that  the  native  artists  have  al- 
ways delighted  in  varied  and  symmetrical  patterns 
of  great  intricacy.  External  beauty,  too,  seems  to 
have  been  sought,  rather  than  intrinsic  thorough  ex- 
cellence of  fabrique,  excepting,  of  course,  the  pro- 
ducts of  the  Persian  looms  and  the  works  of  the 
masters  in  metal. 

As  to  Persian  pottery,  it  has  always  been  more  or 
less  of  a  puzzle  to  antiquarians.  The  ancient  pieces 
in  a  perfect  state  of  preservation  are  exceedingly  few 
and  rare,  and  all  have  been  recovered  from  ruined 
areas. 

There   yet   remain   vast   areas   to   be   excavated 

[234] 


ANTIQUES  OF  PERSIA  AND  OF  INDIA 

by  enterprising  antiquarian  expeditions  and   later 
efforts  are  sure  to  be  productive. 

The  ancient  lustre  faience  dates  back  many  cen- 
turies. Its  genre  was  carried  down  as  late  as  1586. 
The  finest  Persian  ware  resembles  Chinese  porcelain 
somewhat,  having  a  white  ground  with  a2ure-blue 
decoration  in  bold,  free  designs.  The  paste  is  hard 
and  the  color  is  not  blended  with  the  glaze.  Later 
specimens  of  this  genre  have  less  good  design,  blend- 
ing color,  and  a  glaze  showing  greater  vitrification. 

A  second  sort  of  Persian  faience  is  thicker,  shows 
a  departure  from  Chinese  influence  somewhat,  has  a 
softer  and  more  porous  paste,  is  brighter  in  the  blue, 
has  a  less  even  glaze,  and  a  less  well-drawn  design. 
Red  enters,  as  also  relief  and  gaufrures. 

A  third  sort  of  ware  is  denser  and  harder,  of  black- 
ish color  on  a  white  ground,  with  thick  glaze,  and 
some  pieces  have  been  varnished  with  single  color. 
Such  pieces  in  this  genre  as  exhibit  figures  in  the 
decoration  show  these  without  faces,  which  would 
suggest  that  this  class  of  pottery  was  the  product  of 
Persian  potters  of  the  Mussulman  Sunnis  sect,  a  sect 
more  rigidly  opposed  to  presenting  the  human  face 
in  art  than  that  of  the  Shiahs, 

A  fourth  sort  of  ware  is  white  and  translucent,  of 
still  harder  paste,  and  bearing  no  marks  or  makers. 

[235] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

I  have  seen  this  ware  only  in  small  pieces.  It  is 
rare  and  is  usually  styled  porcelaine  blanche  de  Perse. 

A  fifth  sort  of  faience  is  also  translucid,  very  thin, 
and  ornamented  with  lacy  designs. 

The  ruins  of  Rhages  have  yielded  examples  of  the 
sixth  sort  of  faience,  a  common  pottery  of  reddish 
clay  varnished  with  single  color,  and  all  somewhat  in 
imitation  of  the  celadon  porcelain  of  China.  The 
green  and  bronze  varnish  is  often  very  beautiful. 
Some  of  these  pieces  have  designs  in  relief  and 
gaufrure. 

The  faience  tiles  of  Persia  are  among  its  most  in- 
teresting and  beautiful  ceramic  remains.  Most  of 
these  tiles  date  from  such  Seljuk  or  Mogul  rulers  as 
Malik-Shah  (1072),  Hulagu  Khan  (1256),  and 
Ghazan  Khan  (1295). 

India  has  never  produced  anything  like  a  porce- 
lain. Even  pottery  of  the  glazed  sort  rarely  ap- 
peared previous  to  the  Mussulman  tile  products, 
which  tile  products  were  the  forerunners  of  the 
modem  glazed  wares  fabricated  in  Multan,  Jeypore, 
and  Bombay.  However,  unglazed  pottery  has  been 
common  throughout  India  for  countless  centuries. 

In  speaking  of  Hindu  and  Buddhist  art  Ananda 
Comaraswamy  writes  ("The  Arts  and  Crafts  of 
India  and  Ceylon") : 

[236] 


Courtesy  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 

Ewer  and  Basin     Bindri  Ware,   India,   18th  Century 
Polychrome    Persian    Tiles,    17th    Century 


.m 

*.,  , 

^ca 

-^^m^^m^. 

rci 

'"^ 

f  ti 

mr\ 

-  ^  'i 

I'i^^J 

ii^^ 

Courtesy  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 

Chinese  Porcelain   of  The  Kang  H'si  Period,   1662-1723 
Jar,  Famille  Rose  Jar,  Blue  Hawthorn 

Vase,   Famille  Noire  Vase,   Celadon 


ANTIQUES  OF  PERSIA  AND  OF  INDIA 

I  do  not  forget  that  in  almost  every  art  and  craft,  as  also 
in  music,  there  exists  in  Hindustan  a  complete  and  friendly 
fusion  of  the  two  cultures.  The  non-sectarian  character  of 
the  styles  of  Indian  art  has  indeed  always  been  conspicuous ; 
so  that  it  is  often  only  by  special  details  that  one  can  dis- 
tinguish Jain  from  Buddhist  stupas,  Buddhist  from  Hindu 
sculpture,  or  the  Hindu  from  the  Mussulman  minor  crafts. 
The  one  great  distinction  of  Mughal  from  Hindu  art  is  not 
so  much  racial  as  social;  the  former  is  an  art  of  courts  and 
connoisseurs,  owing  much  to  individual  patronage;  the  lat- 
ter belongs  as  much  to  the  folk  as  to  the  kings. 

The  alluring  arts  of  the  East  are  well  worth  one's 
study,  well  deserving  of  one's  enthusiasm.  Per- 
haps the  illustrations  of  some  of  the  antiques  of 
Persia  and  of  India  here  reproduced  from  photo- 
graphs of  some  of  the  fine  examples  to  be  found  will 
awaken  an  interest  in  the  subject  in  some  who  chance 
upon  them.  I  only  hope  the  world  holds  more  Ma- 
jor Kyttyles  of  revered  memory,  and  that  you,  too, 
may  have  the  good  fortune  to  be  brought  into  com- 
munion with  such  treasures  as  made  the  major's  home 
vie  with  our  conceptions  of  the  palace  of  Aladdin, 
treasures  which  in  time  brought  even  the  Pickhams  to 
forgive  the  major  his  diaphanous-tailed  goldfish,  to 
feel  no  longer  the  sting  of  the  insignificance  of  their 
poor  little  gilded  minnows. 

[2371 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

CHINESE    PORCELAINS 

NOT  to  know  something  of  Chinese  porce- 
lains, their  history  and  their  periods,  is  to 
be  denied  a  pleasurable  interest.  The  old 
porcelains  of  China  are  the  ancestors  of  all  china- 
wares  of  the  world,  and  never  have  the  finest  antique 
f  abriques  of  the  Celestial  Kingdom  been  surpassed  or 
even  equaled  in  beauty  and  texture. 

The  potter's  craft,  as  we  all  know,  had  its  origin 
in  the  dim  ages  of  the  past.  Even  the  discovery  of 
true  porcelain  must  be  dated  so  far  back  that  we  have 
no  authentic  record  of  the  era  of  its  origin. 

The  literature  of  China  ascribes  the  invention  of 
true  porcelain  to  some  twenty-five  hundred  years  be- 
fore Christ,  but  we  cannot  be  certain  that  the  art  of 
porcelain-making  was  known  and  practised  until, 
perhaps,  after  the  seventh  century.  While  Chinese 
literature  of  the  early  periods  abounds  in  references 
to  porcelain,  we  have  not  a  single  authentic  dated 
piece  of  the  very  early  dynasties.  It  seems  plausible 
to  advance  the  theory  that  true  porcelain  was  an  in- 

[238] 


CHINESE  PORCELAINS 

vention  or  discovery  of  the  Han  dynasty  (206  b.  c). 
The  Japanese  writer  Okakura-Kakuzo  has  suggested 
that  to  the  alchemists  of  the  Han  dynasty  came  ac- 
cidentally the  discovery  of  the  wonderful  porcelain 
glaze.  The  literature  by  Chinese  authors  of  the 
T'ang  dynasty  is  rich  in  references  to  porcelain. 
The  poet  Tu  (803-852),  for  instance,  says: 

The  porcelain  of  the  Ta-yi  kilns  is  light  yet  strong, 

It  rings  with  a  low  jade  note  and  is  famed  throughout  the 

city. 
The  fine  white  bowls  surpass  hoar  frost  and  snow. 

The  white  bowls  of  Hsing-chou  in  Chihli  and  the 
blue  bowls  of  Yuen-chou  in  Che-kiang  were  highly 
esteemed  and  celebrated  in  song  and  story.  Their 
resonance  of  tone  was  such  that  musicians  were  said 
to  have  utilized  them. 

The  Arabs  and  Chinese  were  conducting  a  flourish- 
ing trade  during  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries. 
To  Soleyman,  one  of  the  early  Arabian  traders  who 
wrote  an  account  of  his  journey ings,  we  owe  the  first 
mention  of  China  in  the  literature  of  the  world  out- 
side the  empire.  "In  China,"  said  he,  "they  have  a 
very  fine  clay  which  they  manufacture  vases  from, 
as  transparent  as  glass;  water  is  seen  through  them." 
Bushell  ("Chinese  Art,"  vol.  II)  tells  us  that  in 
the  time  of  the   Emperor  Shi  Tsung   (954-959) 

[239] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

of  the  brief  Posterior  Chou  dynasty  established  at 
K'ai-feng-fu  prior  to  the  Sung  dynasty,  an  imperial 
rescript  ordered  porcelain  "as  blue  as  the  sky,  as  clear 
as  a  mirror,  as  thin  as  paper  and  as  resonant  as  a 
musical  stone  of  jade." 

All  the  porcelains  of  the  times  we  have  referred 
to  seem  long  since  to  have  disappeared  and  the  only 
knowledge  of  them  which  we  have  to-day  is  through 
the  literature  of  their  contemporary  writers.  The 
Sung  dynasty  (960-1280),  the  Yuan  dynasty 
(1280-1367),  and  the  Ming  dynasty  (1368-1643) 
open  up  to  us  surer  knowledge  as  specimens  of  the 
time  are  available  to  students.  The  porcelains  of 
the  Sung  and  Yuan  dynasties  may  be  classed  to- 
gether. The  ceramic  production  (y^o)  made  in  the 
province  of  Honan  in  the  town  now  called  Ju-chou- 
fu — a  Sung  dynasty  porcelain  therefore  designated 
as  Ju-Yao — stands  famous  for  the  qualities  of  its 
blues,  which  Chinese  poets  assure  us  rival  the  blue 
blossoms  of  the  Vitex  incisUy  the  Chinese  "Sky  Blue 
Flower." 

The  imperial  ware  of  the  Sung  dynasty  was  the 
Kuan  Yao  (two  Chinese  words  signifying  "official 
ceramic  kiln").  Then  there  was  the  Yo  Yao  por- 
celain, the  early  crackled  ware;  and  the  Ting  Yao, 
a.  porcelain  having  a  delicate  resonant  body.     This 

[240] 


CHINESE  PORCELAINS 

seems  to  be  the  most  commonly  met  with  among 
the  wares  of  the  Sung  period.  The  Lung-ch'uan 
Yao  of  the  Sung  wares  is  the  famed  Celadon  ware 
made  in  the  province  of  Che-kiang.  The  Celadon 
ware  of  this  dynasty  is  distinguished  by  its  onion- 
sprout  green  color.  The  Celadon  wares  of  later 
periods  turn  more  either  to  greyish  greens  or  to  sea- 
green  hues. 

The  Chiin  yao  faience  was  the  product  of  Chiin- 
chou,  now  Yii-chou,  a  town  of  the  province  of  Ho- 
nan.  Marvelous  indeed  were  its  glazes  of  unsur- 
passed brilliancy  and  beauty  of  color.  The  trans- 
mutation flambes  were  especially  notable. 

In  the  reign  of  Yung  Cheng  (1723)  the  emperor 
sent  a  list  of  Chiin-chou  pieces  to  be  reproduced  by 
the  imperial  potteries  in  Chung-te-chen,  from  which 
(record  of  this  being  extant)  we  are  able  to  glean 
some  knowledge  of  the  great  variety  of  glaze  colors 
of  the  earlier  period.  In  this  list  appeared  crimson- 
rose,  japonica-pink,  sky-blue,  plum-color,  dark 
purple,  millet-yellow,  flambes,  etc.  Early  in  the 
eighteenth  century  all  these  glazes  and  colors  were 
reproduced  with  marvelous  skill,  but  the  new  white 
body  was  probably  infinitely  superior  to  the  early 
body. 

The  Chien  Yao  Ware  of  the  Simg  dynasty  was 
[241] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

produced  in  Fu-kien  province,  where  lustrous  black- 
enameled  tea  ceremonial  cups  were  manufactured. 
These  were  dappled  with  specks  of  white  resembling 
the  effect  of  hare's  fur  and  partridge  breasts.  The 
Japanese  treasure  these  pieces,  to  which  they  have 
given  the  name  "Hare-fur  Cups,"  above  almost  any 
other  varieties  of  Chinese  porcelain. 

We  now  come  to  the  Ming  dynasty,  and 
in  the  reign  of  Wan-li  (1573-1619)  the  art  of 
making  and  decorating  porcelain  had  so  advanced 
that  native  contemporaries  were  fond  of  declaring 
there  was  nothing  that  could  not  be  made  of  the 
porcelain.  The  cobalt  blues  came  into  favor  in  this 
period,  and  it  is  also  the  time  of  the  famed  "Mo- 
hammedan blue."  European  and  American  collec- 
tors have  given  a  great  deal  of  attention  to  the  blue- 
and-white  porcelains  that  came  in  with  the  close  of 
the  Ming  dynasty.  It  was  between  1662  and  1722, 
however,  that  the  very  flower  of  the  blue-and-white 
porcelain  was  produced.  This  marks  the  reign  of 
K'ang  Hsi. 

The  K'ang  Hsi  period  (1662-1722)  was  the  cul- 
minating one  of  Chinese  ceramic  art.  Of  this  por- 
celain, Bushell  says : 

The  briUiant  renaissance  of  the  art  which  distinguishes 
the  reign  of  K'ang  Hsi  is  shown  in  every  class;  in  the 

[242] 


CHINESE  PORCELAINS 

single-colored  glazes,  la  qualite  maitresse  de  la  ceramique; 
in  the  painted  decorations  of  the  grand  feu,  of  the  jewel-like 
enamels  of  the  muffle-kiln,  and  of  their  manifold  combina- 
tions ;  in  the  pulsating  vigour  of  every  shade  of  blue  in  the 
inimitable  "blue  and  white." 

He  also  tells  us  porcelains  of  the  famille  verte 
class  pervade  the  period  while  those  of  the  famille 
rose  class  may  be  said  to  have  ushered  in  its  close. 
The  greens  that  give  the  porcelains  of  the  famille 
verte  and  the  famille  rose  classes  their  names  are  in- 
deed gem-like  in  their  beauty.  Precious,  too,  to  the 
collector  are  the  Blue-  and  White  or  the  Black  Haw- 
thorn Jars  of  the  period.  Hawthorn  is  a  mis- 
nomer, for  the  prunus  blossom  and  not  the  Haw- 
thorn blossom  furnishes  the  motif  of  the  decoration. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  Frunus  blossoms 
in  the  white  on  the  blue  ground  crossed  by  white 
zigzag  lines  represents  to  the  Oriental  fancy  the 
flowers  falling  on  ice  breaking  up  in  the  spring- 
time. 

The  master  quality  of  fine  porcelain  is  its  glaze 
and  the  glazes  of  old  Chinese  porcelains  have  never 
been  surpassed.  The  reigns  of  Yung  Cheng  and  his 
celebrated  son,  Ch'ien  Lung,  who  lend  name  to  the 
period  from  1723  to  1796,  sustained  the  perfection 
of  Chinese  porcelain.     The  decadence  of  the  art  be- 

[243] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

gins  with  the  modern  period,  from  1796  to  the 
present. 

The  marks  on  Chinese  porcelains  are  various  in 
character  and  come  under  one  or  more  of  the  fol- 
lowing divisions:  marks  of  date,  hall-marks,  marks 
of  dedication  and  good  wishes,  marks  in  praise  of  the 
piece  of  porcelain  inscribed,  symbols,  and  other  pic- 
torial marks  and  potters'  marks.  It  is  not  necessary 
here  to  go  into  the  intricacies  of  these,  but  they  fur- 
nish a  fascinating  study.  This,  too,  is  true  of  the 
designs  that  are  to  be  found  on  the  decorated  pieces 
of  Chinese  porcelain.  The  casual  observer  will  pick 
up  a  piece  and  admire  or  dismiss  it  on  the  judgment 
of  the  general  impression  it  makes  upon  his  artistic 
sensibilities.  Not  so  with  the  connoisseur,  who  takes 
into  consideration  color,  texture,  glaze,  and,  quite  as 
much  as  these  (so  far  as  intellectual  interest  is  con- 
cerned), the  story  the  design  tells. 

The  porcelains  of  China,  like  the  sword-guards  of 
Japan,  offer  the  native  artists  a  vast  wealth  of 
mythological  and  folklore  subjects.  Then  sym- 
bolism and  occasion  are  closely  cemented  in  Oriental 
thought,  and  if  the  collector  of  old  Chinese  porce- 
lains finds  their  decoration  puzzling  at  times  in  its 
significance,  how  absorbing  are  its  unravelings! 

Since  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth  the  Western 

[244] 


CHINESE  PORCELAINS 

world  has  recognized  the  beauty  and  the  decorative 
value  of  the  porcelains  of  China,  and  at  no  time  have 
they  sunk  in  regard.  Rarities  are  no  longer  likely 
to  be  found  hidden  away,  or  acquired  for  a  posy.  At 
the  same  time,  the  possession  of  a  single  object  and 
some  knowledge  of  the  evolution  in  ceramics  that  led 
to  it  are  interesting. 


IMS] 


CHAPTER  XXX 

CHINESE    AND    JAPANESE    LACQUER 

FEW  pieces  of  the  lacquer  of  China  and  of 
Japan  reached  the  hands  of  collectors  before 
the  beginning  of  foreign  trade  by  China  and 
the  opening  of  Japan  in  the  mid-nineteenth  century. 
Just  how  few  may  be  guessed  from  the  fact  that  the 
Orientals  who  allowed  over  sixteen  thousand  pieces 
of  porcelain  to  be  exported  to  Europe  in  one  of  the 
years  of  the  eighteenth  century  permitted  but  twelve 
pieces  of  lacquer  to  leave  their  shores.  And  how 
eagerly  these  bits  were  sought  by  the  collectors  of  the 
time!  Marie  Antoinette  was  one  of  them,  and  the 
Marquise  de  Pompadour  another.  The  collection  of 
the  former  of  some  hundred  pieces  is  preserved  in  the 
Museum  of  the  Louvre.  Madame  de  Pompadour 
was,  in  all  probability,  a  collector  of  greater  dis- 
crimination. She  possessed  rare  artistic  sense,  and 
the  hundred  and  ten  thousand  livres  the  marquise 
expended  on  her  collection  tempted  even  the  shut 
doors  of  Asia ! 

[246] 


CHINESE  AND  JAPANESE  LACQUER 

Lacquer  undoubtedly  originated  in  China.  Just 
when,  we  may  not  know,  but  it  is  of  ancient  ancestry. 
In  fact,  lacquer  as  a  material  has  been  used  for  cen- 
turies by  the  Chinese  in  industrial  art.  We  can 
imagine  that  lacquer  was  at  first  employed  as  a  pre- 
servative for  the  woodwork  on  which  it  was  used  as  a 
coating,  developing  as  time  went  on  into  a  medium 
for  artistic  work  of  the  highest  order.  Lacquer  is 
not  an  artificial  mixture  such  as  our  copal  and  other 
varnishes  but  is  principally  the  natural  product  of 
the  Rhus  vernicifera^  the  Chinese  lac  tree,  CWi  shu. 
Therefore  it  is  virtually  "ready-made"  when  ex- 
tracted. The  tree  abounds  in  central  and  southern 
China  and  is  assiduously  cultivated  for  its  valuable 
sap. 

Usually  wood,  most  frequently  cedar  or  mag- 
nolia, thoroughly  dried  and  seasoned,  forms  the 
basis  of  lacquered  objects.  The  form  is  thinly  but 
securely  constructed  and  primed.  The  surface  is 
carefully  ground  down  and  coated  thickly  with  a 
prepared  varnish.  This  surface,  when  dry,  is  in 
turn  made  smooth  by  abrasion.  Next  this  base  is 
very  skilfully  covered  with  a  layer  of  specially  pre- 
pared silk,  paper,  or  a  cloth  woven  of  hemp  fibers,  all 
depending  upon  the  size  and  projected  quality  of  the 
article.     Successive  coats  of  the  prepared  varnish  are 

[247] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

then  applied,  each  being  allowed  thoroughly  to  dry. 
Finally  the  lac  is  applied,  layer  after  layer,  spread 
on  at  first,  and  then  added  to  by  means  of  fine 
brushes  of  human  hair.  Those  parts  of  lacquer- 
work  which  stand  forth  in  relief  are  first  built  up 
with  a  lacquer  "putty"  of  special  preparation. 

There  are  never  less  than  three  or  more  than 
eighteen  layers  of  lacquer  employed,  thorough  dry- 
ing requisite  to  each  separate  layer.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  that  several  hundred  hours  may  be  taken  up 
with  the  preparation  of  the  grounding  before  the 
actual  lacquering  is  begun !  With  a  paste  of  white 
lead  the  artist  outlines  his  design.  Next  he  fills  in 
the  detail  with  gold  and  colors,  over  which  a  coat  of 
transparent  lacquer  is  applied. 

In  the  reign  of  the  founder  of  the  Ming  dynasty 
in  China,  Hung  Wu,  there  was  published  the  "Ko 
ku  yao  lun"  (a.  d.  1387),  a  learned  antiquarian, 
art,  and  literary  work  written  by  Tsao  Ch'ao,  and 
comprised  in  thirteen  books.  From  this  we  learn  of 
the  following  sorts  of  lacquer  then  held  in  esteem: 
ancient  rhinoceros  horn  reproductions,  carved  red 
lacquer,  painted  red  lacquer,  lacquer  with  gold  re- 
liefs, pierced  lacquer,  and  lacquer  with  mother-of- 
pearl  incrustations.  Tsao  Ch'ao's  erudition  enables 
us,  I  think,  to  trace  Chinese  lacquer-work  back  to  the 

[248] 


CHINESE  AND  JAPANESE  LACQUER 

Sung  dynasty  with  reasonable  certainty.  Another 
Chinese  writer,  Chang  Ying-wen,  wrote  a  little 
book,  the  "Ch'ing  pi  ts'ang"  or  "Collections  of  Ar- 
tistic Rarities,"  which  describes  objects  shown  in  an 
art  exhibition  held  in  the  province  of  Kiang-su  in 
the  spring  of  1570.  After  references  to  lacquers 
of  the  Yuan  and  the  Sung  dynasties  he  says  in 
effect: 

In  this  our  Ming  Dynasty  carved  lacquer  of  the  reign  of 
Yung  Lo  in  the  Kuo  Yuan  Ch*ang  factory,  and  that  made 
in  the  reign  of  Hsiian  Te  was  surpassing  in  its  color  of  cin- 
nabar hue  and  also  in  its  craftsmanship  as  well  as  in  char- 
acters of  the  calligraphic  inscriptions  incised  underneath  the 
pieces. 

There  was  a  notable  revival  of  interest  in  lacquer- 
work  in  the  years  that  followed  the  upset  condition 
of  China  during  the  close  of  the  Ming  period,  when 
lacquer-work  was  of  necessity  neglected.  During 
the  lifetime  of  Emperor  Ch'ien  Lung  (1736-1796), 
Pere  d'Incarville,  a  member  of  the  French  Academy 
and  a  Jesuit  savant  of  note,  wrote  a  "Memoire  sur 
le  Vernis  de  la  Chine,"  published  with  illustrations 
in  1760.  We  find  him  saying:  "Si  en  Chine  les 
Princes  et  les  grands  ont  de  belles  pieces  de  vernis^ 
ce  sont  des  pieces  faites  pour  VEmpereur^  qui  en 
donne^  ou  ne  regoit  pas  toutes  celles  qiCon  lui  pre- 

[249] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

sente^  This,  in  itself,  stimulated  European  inter- 
est in  collecting  lacquer  at  the  time. 

In  recent  years  Canton  and  Fuchow  have  been 
centers  for  the  manufacture  of  painted  lacquer, 
called  hua  ch'i^  and  Peking  and  Suchow  for  carved 
lacquer,  or  tiao  ch'i.  However,  the  collector  must 
not  look  for  any  pieces  of  finest  quality  in  the 
tiao  chH  since  the  reign  of  Ch'ien  Lung,  who  lent 
carved  lacquer-work  his  warmest  approbation.  We 
are  told  of  a  certain  celebrated  Arabian  traveler,  Ibn 
Batuta  by  name,  who  was  in  Canton  about  the  year 
1345  and  made  note  of  the  excellence  of  the  lacquer- 
work  he  found  there  at  that  time.  That  of  Fuchow 
is  described  in  the  words  of  Monsieur  Paleologue  as 
"most  seductive  to  the  eye  from  the  purity  of  its  sub- 
stance, the  perfect  evenness  of  its  varnished  coat,  the 
lustrous  or  deep  intensity  of  its  shades  and  the  power 
of  its  reliefs,  the  breath  of  the  composition  and  the 
harmonious  tones  of  the  gold  grounds  and  painted 
brushwork." 

Of  late  years  the  collecting  of  the  lacquers  of 
Japan  has  engaged  many  of  the  most  enthusiastic  and 
discriminating  connoisseurs,  and  there  are  many  pub- 
lic as  well  as  private  collections  of  lacquer  objects  in 
America.  Probably  the  favorite  objects  in  Japanese 
lacquer  are  those  interesting  and  beautiful  little  inro 

[250] 


CHINESE  AND  JAPANESE  LACQUER 

or  compartment  box,  indispensable  to  every  Jap- 
anese gentleman's  attire  in  earlier  days,  and  to  which 
was  attached  by  a  silken  cord  the  netsuke,  or  but- 
ton, by  means  of  which  it  was  suspended  from  the 
obi,  or  sash.  These  lacquered  inro  have  not  been 
surpassed  for  their  beauty  and  are  of  literary  in- 
terest. 

Of  the  varieties  of  Japanese  lacquer  one  may 
make  mention  of  the  nashiji^  generally  known  to 
Western  collectors  as  "avanturine,"  so  named  by 
Europeans  from  its  resemblance  to  avanturine  Vene- 
tian glass.  When  kirikane  (torn  gold  leaf)  is  em- 
ployed the  lacquer  is  called  Giobunashiji.  The 
togidashi  lacquer  is  that  in  which  the  pattern  is  pro- 
duced by  grinding  and  polishing,  revealing  the  gold 
ground.  Hiramaki-ye  is  the  Japanese  term  used  for 
all  those  lacquers  which  have  design  not  raised  above 
the  surface  more  than  the  thickness  of  the  lines  that 
trace  it.  Then  there  is  to  be  found  a  combination  of 
the  flat-gold  lacquer  with  the  relief-gold  lacquer. 
The  red  Japanese  lacquer  is  known  by  the  native 
name  of  tsuishu^  and  the  black  lacquer  is  called 
tsuikoku;  those  in  which  the  design  is  carved  out  of 
the  lacquer-formed  or  superimposed  layers  which  are 
exposed  by  the  incisions  of  the  graver  are  called  guri. 
The  chinkinbori  lacquer,  in  imitation  of  the  Chinese 

[251] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

lacquer,  is  a  sort  of  patterned  lacquer,  the  design  of 
which  is  produced  with  a  rat-tooth  graver  and  the  in- 
cision filled  up  with  gold. 

Honnami  Koyetsu  (1556-1637)  is  one  of  the 
earliest  Japanese  lacquerers  of  importance  whose 
work  has  come  down  to  us.  Koma  Kiuhaka,  who 
died  in  1715,  was  another  lacquerer  of  great  dis- 
tinction, the  founder,  in  fact,  of  a  "school." 
Bunsai,  Korin,  Yastuda,  and  Yasunari  were  brilliant 
followers.  Korin  (1661-1716)  was  the  most  fa- 
mous lacquerer  Japan  has  ever  produced.  It  was 
he  who  first  extensively  used  mother-of-pearl  and 
pewter  ornament  in  Japanese  lacquer  in  combination 
with  the  decoration.  Collectors  will  find  few  signa- 
tures on  pieces  of  lacquer;  the  work  itself  must  be 
the  guide. 


[252] 


on 


2  ^ 
OS 


x^U 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

CHINESE    SNUFF-BOTTLES 

FIFTEEN  hundred  years  ago  there  lived  a 
Chinese  painter,  Wu  Tao-tzu,  famous  in  Ce- 
lestial lore,  of  whom  it  was  said  that  it 
seemed  as  if  a  god  possessed  him  and  wielded  the 
brush  in  his  hand.  This  greatest  of  all  Chinese 
masters  was  held  in  high  esteem  by  the  emperor. 
One  day,  wishing  to  possess  a  landscape  of  one  of  his 
favorite  bits  of  scenery,  the  emperor  directed  Wu 
Tao-tzu  to  go  forth  and  paint  it.  In  the  evening 
Wu  Tao-tzu  returned,  but  empty-handed. 

"Why!"  exclaimed  the  emperor;  "where  is  the 
landscaped     You  have  nothing!" 

"O  august  Serenity,  Son  of  Heaven !"  replied  Wu 
Tao-tzu,  "I  have  it  all,  all  the  landscape,  here  in  my 
heart." 

Perhaps  he  made  some  discreet  concession  to  the 
material  side  of  the  adventure,  for  straightway  he 
proceeded  to  cover  a  wall  of  one  of  the  apartments  in 
the  palace  with  a  marvelous  scene,  such  as  the  one  he 
had  spent  the  day  in  contemplat!ing.     The  next 

[253] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

morning  it  was  finished.  Delighted,  the  emperor 
came  to  view  it.  "Ah,"  said  he,  "wonderful,  won- 
derful !  It  is  the  river,  the  bamboo,  and  there  those 
majestic  rocks!" 

At  the  word,  Wu  Tao-tzu  clapped  his  hands,  and 
lo!  there  in  the  rocks  of  the  picture  a  cavern  ap- 
peared. Wu  Tao-tzu  stepped  into  it,  the  entrance 
closed,  and  Wu  Tao-tzu  disappeared  from  earth. 
Surely  no  legend  better  illustrates  the  Chinese  point 
of  view,  that  a  painting  is  the  home  of  the  painter's 
soul. 

That  is  the  story  which  was  told  to  me  one  day 
when,  happening  into  a  Chinese  shop  where  some 
antiques  and  curios  were  offered  for  sale,  I  chanced 
to  pick  up  a  tiny  bottle.  It  was  not  over  two  and  a 
half  inches  high.  Its  weight  proclaimed  it  crystal. 
A  miniature  scene  and  inscription  were  skilfully  and 
beautifully  painted  inside. 

"This,"  said  the  intelligent  Chinese  attendant,  in 
answer  to  my  question,  "is  little  bit  painting.  Story 
one  man  artist  man  very  much  great.  Him  name 
Wu  Tao-tzu." 

Then  he  told  me  the  story,  a  golden  nail  on  which 
to  hang  a  bottle  I  Surely  enough,  there  was  de- 
picted Wu  Tao-tzu  entering  the  cavern.  The  in- 
scription vouched  for  the  incident. 

[254] 


CHINESE  SNUFF-BOTTLES 

"But  what  a  tiny  bottle  I     What  was  it  used  for'?" 

"Much  little  bottle  China  old  time  fine  like  this. 
More  other  bottle  kinds  use  snuff  for,  medicine  for. 
Look  yes  you  please." 

The  Celestial  showed  me  how  the  ivory  "spoon," 
runnning  the  depth  of  the  bottle  and  fastened  in  the 
coral  stopper,  was  manipulated  to  fetch  forth 
portions  of  anything  a  vial  of  this  sort  might  con- 
tain. In  snuff-taking  the  "spoon"  was  emptied  on 
the  thumb  nail  and  the  "sniff"  deftly  taken.  That 
was  my  introduction  to  the  fact  that  snuff-taking  in 
the  Orient  had  fostered  a  fashion  that  produced  ob- 
jects of  virtue  fully  as  interesting  and  beautiful  as, 
and  certainly  more  curious  than  the  snuff-boxes 
affected  by  the  Europeans  of  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries. 

After  this  is  it  any  wonder  that  the  collector's  in- 
stinct should  have  led  me  to  be  enthusiastic  about 
Chinese  snuff -bottles  as  a  field  for  browsing  *?  And 
soon  I  found  that  the  fascination  of  these  little  ob- 
jects of  art  had  exerted  no  small  influence  on  other 
collectors. 

Fine  snuff-bottles  were  not  to  be  found  at  every 
turning.  Nevertheless  they  were  not  so  rare  as  one 
might  imagine,  although,  as  with  any  other  class  of 
art  objects,  supreme  examples  were  difficult  to  ob- 

[^55] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

tain  at  any  price.  If  China  has  a  population  of  four 
hundred  million  souls  it  must  not  be  assumed  that 
her  craftsmen  have  produced  anything  like  four 
hundred  million  snuff-bottles.  True  it  is  that  men, 
women,  and  children  of  China  smoke,  but  they  do 
not  all  take  snuff. 

Nearly  all  of  these  bottles  that  we  see  in  collec- 
tions are,  perhaps,  snuff -bottles,  though  many  of 
them  were  used  for  medicines,  as  the  Chinese  were 
great  medicine-consumers.  They  used  medicines 
when  well — which  was  most  of  the  time — in  diminu- 
tive doses,  perhaps  as  charms,  and  when  ill  in  quan- 
tities that  would  amaze  and  frighten  us.  Hecate  and 
her  witches  never  prepared  caldron  more  terrific  than 
the  Chinese  physician  of  yesterday  devised  for  his 
certainly  suffering  patient.  The  famous  materia 
medica  of  herbal  which  Li  Shi-chin  spent  thirty  years 
in  preparing,  a  work  published  in  1590,  contained 
over  eighteen  hundred  prescriptions  dear  to  the  heart, 
though  I  fear  disastrous  to  the  well-being  of  the 
Chinese  invalid  pro-tem.  Gallon  containers  would 
not  have  sufficed  for  some  of  these  prescriptions, 
while  others — the  least  virulent,  and  therefore  to  be 
toyed  with — were  harbored  in  the  tiny  bottles  that 
snuff  was,  later,  to  usurp. 

Miniature  Chinese  bottles  found  in  Egypt  and  in 

[256] 


CHINESE  SNUFF-BOTTLES 

Asia  Minor — bottles  of  porcelain  bearing  inscrip- 
tions in  Chinese  from  the  Chinese  poets — show  that 
in  the  tenth  century  communication  already  existed 
between  the  extreme  boundaries  of  Asia.  Arabs 
traded  at  Canton  and  Hangchow  to  the  end  of  the 
Sung  dynasty,  1279.  These  little  bottles  were  prob- 
ably used  by  the  Arabs  for  kohl,  the  black  substance 
with  which  they  painted  their  eyelashes.  Sixty 
years  before  Li  Shi-chin's  herbal — "Pun  tsao"  was 
its  title — tobacco  was  introduced  into  China,  and  be- 
fore long  tobacco  as  snuff  became  popular  and  fash- 
ionable. 

Among  the  ornamental  articles  of  Chinese  adorn- 
ment, says  an  authority  on  eastern  costume,  in  none 
do  they  go  to  so  much  expense  and  style  as  in  the 
snuff-bottle,  which  is  often  carved  from  stone,  am- 
ber, agate,  and  other  rare  minerals  with  most  exqui- 
site taste.  Jade,  of  course,  was  most  precious  of  all 
and  often  imitated  in  glass,  as  were  topaz,  amethyst, 
tourmaline,  amber,  and  other  stones  and  substances. 

Collectors  in  Europe  and  America  are  beginning  to 
realize  what  interesting  things  in  the  way  of  snuff- 
bottles  the  Chinese  glassworker  produced. 

All  Occidental  methods  of  glass-working  have 
long  been  known  to  the  Chinese.  They  have  proved 
themselves  skilful  with  blown,  pressed,  and  molded 

[257] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

glass.  However,  their  fame  as  glass-workers  rests 
chiefly  with  their  cutting,  deep  chiseling,  and  under- 
cutting objects  of  glass.  In  this  respect  they  have 
not  been  surpassed.  Their  work  in  this  field  was 
undoubtedly  inspired  by  their  wide  and  varied  exper- 
ience with  glyptic  work,  a  field  in  which  their  accom- 
plishments in  fashioning  jade  and  other  hard  stones 
served  them  a  good  turn. 

As  glass  presented  a  somewhat  less  resisting  mass 
than  that  of  nephrite,  jadeite,  or  rock  crystal,  the 
Chinese  lapidary  found  in  it  ready  response  to  his 
craftsmanship.  The  carved  glass  objects  of  the 
Chinese  usually  are  small.  They  generally  suggest 
by  skihful  coloring  and  tinting  the  hard  stones  they 
imitate.  The  Chinese  snuff-bottles  are  especially  re- 
markable in  this  respect,  as  they  are  also  in  the 
marvelous  fertility  of  invention  bestowed  on  their 
decoration,  though  in  form  they  are  nearly  of  one 
general  type  and  do  not  vary  greatly  in  size.  From 
the  plain  crystalline  glass  bottles  decorated  with 
landscape  or  figure  subjects  (by  deftly  painting  the 
interior  walls  of  the  bottle  so  that  the  scene  shows 
through)  to  the  much-bejeweled  bottles,  all  thesfe 
gems  of  Chinese  fabrication  are  triumphs  of  the  art, 
patience,  and  ingenuity  of  the  Oriental  hand  and 
mind. 

[258] 


CHINESE  SNUFF-BOTTLES 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  Chinese  have 
never  made  claim  to  the  discovery  of  glass.  The  his- 
torical work,  "Wei  Luo,"  based  on  third-century 
records,  chronicles  that  ten  colors  of  opaque  glass 
were  imported  by  the  Chinese  from  Rome  between 
the  years  22 1  and  264.  The  Chinese  themselves  did 
not  learn  the  art  of  glass-making  until  the  fifth 
century. 

The  fine  porcelain  snuff-bottles  of  the  Celestials 
are  indeed  things  to  be  treasured.  We  find  them  in 
endless  colors  and  designs.  Some  are  plain,  some 
with  under-glaze  decoration,  some  cased  with  pierced 
porcelain  casing,  others  with  molded  decoration,  and 
still  others  with  painted  decoration.  Occasionally 
one  finds  a  porcelain  bottle  whose  glaze  intention- 
ally simulates  glass. 

The  Chinese  are  skilful  lapidaries.  Their  work 
in  shaping  jade  and  other  hard  stones  has  not  been 
surpassed.  The  Celestial  craftsman  likewise  shows 
great  ingenuity  in  taking  advantage  of  any  irregu- 
larity in  form  or  color  of  the  stone  he  is  working. 
The  various  quartzes  are  worked  by  the  Chinese  on 
the  same  treadle  bench  which  they  use  in  fashioning 
jade,  and  they  work  quartz  stones  along  the  same 
general  lines. 

A  study  of  Chinese  snuff-bottles  will  indicate  the 

I259] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

unlimited  range  in  the  decoration,  form,  etc.,  of  these 
objects.  It  will  be  seen,  however,  that  they  are  all 
nearly  of  a  size  dictated  by  general  convenience  in 
carrying  in  pockets  and  pouches.  The  stoppers  of 
these  Chinese  snuff-bottles  are  scarcely  less  beautiful 
in  many  instances  than  the  bottles  themselves.  As 
a  general  rule  the  stoppers  are  of  material  more 
precious  than  that  used  for  the  bottle.  Pearls  and 
precious  stones  are  less  often  employed,  and  I  have 
never  seen  a  Chinese  snuff-bottle  stopper  inset  with 
diamonds.  The  diamond  is  a  stone  the  Chinese  have 
never  appeared  to  regard  highly  except  for  its  utili- 
tarian possibilities.  Coral  is  a  favorite  for  the 
snuff-bottle  stoppers.  Ivory  is  not  uncommon  for 
stoppers,  but  fine  ivory  snuff-bottles  are  very  rare, 
as  likewise  are  fine  cloisonne  enamel  bottles. 

There  is  no  gainsaying  that  Chinese  snuff-bottles 
cannot  fail  to  attract  the  collector  by  reason  of  their 
esthetic  interest.  At  the  same  time,  few  objects  open 
up  a  more  interesting  intellectual  treat  than  is 
afforded  by  a  study  of  these  tiny  bottles  in  respect  to 
the  subject  of  their  decoration.  Colors,  too,  are  to 
be  studied.  Five  colors  enter  popular  Chinese  tradi- 
tion: black,  white — the  Chinese  regard  these  as 
colors — blue,  yellow,  and  red,  to  each  of  which  is 
attached  definite  symbolism.     Colors   are,   for   in- 

[260] 


CHINESE  SNUFF-BOTTLES 

stance,  associated  with  the  points  of  the  compass — 
black  with  north,  red  with  south,  blue  with  east,  and 
white  with  west.  Yellow  is  the  color  associated 
with  the  earth,  and  so  on. 

Surely  the  treasured  snufF-bottles  of  the  Celestials 
offer  the  collector  much  that  is  intellectually  delect- 
able; and  as  really  interesting  specimens  are  not  be- 
yond the  moderate  purse,  their  enjoyment  does  not 
necessitate  the  sacrifices  that  might  deter  the  collec- 
tor since  these  little  objects  of  art  are  not  as  hope- 
lessly out  of  reach  as  were  the  grapes  to  Tantalus ! 


[261] 


CHAPTER  XXXII 

CLOISONNE    ENAMELS    OF    CHINA    AND    JAPAN 

THE  art  of  the  enameler  throughout  the  ages 
has  ever  proved  to  be  a  subject  of  interest  to 
connoisseurs  and  collectors.  While  learned 
monographs  in  many  languages  have  been  written  on 
the  fascinating  subject  of  European  enamels,  less 
appears  to  have  been  written  concerning  those  of 
Asia  and  particularly  those  of  China  and  Japan. 
The  real  collector,  as  distinguished  from  the  mere 
gatherer  or  hoarder  of  art  objects,  finds  a  great  part 
of  his  pleasure  in  acquainting  himself  with  the  pro- 
cesses of  manufacture  as  well  as  with  the  history 
of  the  things  he  collects.  It  is  this  acquaintance- 
ship with  the  minutiae  of  a  subject  that  enables  one 
to  collect  with  judgment. 

The  basis  of  all  enamels  is  the  application  of 
fusible  silicate  or  glass,  colored  with  metallic  oxides, 
all  upon  a  metal  ground.  The  varieties  of  enamels 
have  already  been  described  at  length  in  the  chapter 
on  European  enamels,  but  it  will  be  convenient  to 

[262] 


ENAMELS  OF  CHINA  AND  OF  JAPAN 

summarize  the  processes  here  as  they  apply  to 
Oriental  as  well  as  to  Occidental  enamels. 

In  cloisonne  enamel-work  a  metal  base — of  gold, 
silver,  copper,  or  some  other  metal — has  its  de- 
sign traced  upon  it  by  means  of  thin  metal  wires  or 
strips  soldered  to  the  base  and  forming  a  number  of 
divisions.  These,  when  filled  with  the  colored  sili- 
cate (subjected  to  amalgamation  by  heat,  and  after- 
ward polished)  produce  a  beautiful  patterned  sur- 
face, the  design  of  which  appears  traced  in  metal  fila- 
ments. The  Byzantine  and  the  Greek  enamelers 
executed  their  cloisonne  enamels  in  gold,  as  likewise 
did  the  Anglo-Saxons,  the  Russians,  the  Chinese,  and 
the  Japanese  in  their  finest  work. 

In  the  plique  a  jour  enamels  we  find  what  is  really 
a  variety  of  cloisonne  rather  than  a  class,  as  the 
plique  a  jour  is  cloisonne  unbacked  by  a  metal  ground 
but  much  like  a  leaded  stained-glass  window  in 
miniature.  That  is,  if  one  holds  a  piece  of 
plique  a  jour  work  to  the  light  he  will  find  it  allows 
the  light  to  pass  through,  whence  its  name. 

Champleve  enamel  resembles  cloisonne,  but  its 
pattern,  instead  of  being  traced  by  cloisons  soldered 
on  a  metal  base,  is  scooped  out  by  a  sort  of  deep  en- 
graving upon  the  metal  base,  these  depressions  being 
filled  up  with   enamel,    which   is   fired   and   then 

[263] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

polished.  The  Celts,  the  Persians,  and  the  enamel- 
ers  of  India  worked  in  this  manner. 

Respousse  enamel  is,  one  may  say,  a  variety  of 
champleve,  or  at  least  so  closely  akin  to  it  that  it  is 
seldom  considered  as  composing  a  class  by  itself, 
though  I  think  it  should  be.  In  such  enamel-work 
the  design  is  wrought  upon  the  metal  base,  not  with 
cloisons  as  in  cloisonne,  nor  by  scooping  out  by  a 
graver,  as  in  true  champleve.  Instead,  the  design 
is  worked  upon  the  metal  by  hammering  out — 
respousse — the  depressions  to  be  filled  with  the 
enamel.  This  is  then  fired  and  polished,  as  all 
enamel  of  any  class  has  to  be.  Some  of  the  enamels 
of  India  are  such  fine  examples  of  work  of  this  sort 
that  they  have  passed  as  true  champleve. 

Finally,  we  come  to  the  painted  enamels,  such  as 
those  of  Limoges.  In  the  earliest  examples  of  the 
painted  class  one  finds  the  design  applied  directly  to 
the  metal  base,  grain  by  grain  and  layer  by  layer,  in 
such  a  manner  that  the  various  fusings  and  glazings 
produce  the  results  one  finds  in  the  marvelous  old 
Limoges  enamels;  while  in  later  work  the  enamel  is 
fused  upon  the  metal  base,  the  designs  being  painted 
(in  some  instances  printed)  on  the  enamel. 

This  brief  survey  of  the  characteristics  of  the  dif- 
ferent classes  of  old  enamels  will  the  better  enable 

[264] 


ENAMELS  OF  CHINA  AND  OF  JAPAN 

the  collector  to  confine  his  attention  for  the  moment 
to  the  subject  of  cloisonne  enamels,  and  in  particular 
to  those  of  China  and  Japan.  Of  late  years  the 
cloisonne  enamels  of  these  countries  have  been 
extensively  exported,  more  especially  to  America. 
Many  of  these  modern  examples  are  very  beautiful, 
some  of  them  very  trashy,  and  none  of  them  com- 
parable in  beauty  with  early  Chinese  work,  though, 
from  a  technical  point  of  view  and  an  individuality 
of  their  own,  I  fancy  some  of  the  modern  specimens 
would  have  made  the  seventeenth-century  enamel- 
workers  of  China  rub  their  eyes  in  wonderment. 
This  great  and  difficult  art  is  surely  one  of  the  glories 
of  Chinese  craftsmanship.  One  might  not  think  that 
the  outlook  for  collecting  these  old  enamels  in  Amer- 
ica very  encouraging.  Nevertheless  it  is  a  line  of 
collecting  that  has  not  been  overdone,  and  genuine 
old  objects  are  to  be  found,  here  and  there,  by  those 
who  know  them  when  they  see  them. 

As  color  is  the  very  soul  of  enamel,  the  rich,  soft 
colors  of  the  early  Chinese  work  help  to  distinguish 
it.  This  is  especially  true  of  the  varied  and  beauti- 
ful blues  employed  by  the  Chinese  enamelers.  Oc- 
casionally the  Chinese  employed  both  cloisonne  and 
champleve  in  the  same  piece  as  certain  pieces  of  the 
Ch'ien  Lung  period  (1736-1796)  show.     In  genu- 

[265] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

ine  old  pieces  it  often  happens  that  corrosion  has 
made  its  appearance  around  the  cloisons.  While  the 
early  history  of  Chinese  cloisonne  is  lost  to  us,  we 
know  it  to  have  been  in  favor  in  the  early  fifteenth 
century,  as  a  vase  in  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum 
attests.  Not  only  for  its  blues  is  Chinese  cloisonne 
noted,  but  it  possesses  characteristic  reds,  lilacs,  vio- 
lets, pinks,  greens,  and  orange  as  well.  The  Chinese 
enameler's  palette  was  medieval  in  its  selection. 
The  blues  of  turquoise  and  of  lapis  lazuli  were  great 
favorites  likewise.  A  sang-de-boeuf  and  a  sealing- 
wax  red,  opaque  in  quality,  were  further  employed. 
In  fact,  the  Chinese  enamelers  employed  the  colors 
of  the  early  European  cloisonne  workers.  Their 
whites,  however,  were  always  inferior  and  in  early 
work  exhibit  air-hole  pit  marks. 

The  collector  will  understand  from  this  how  neces- 
sary it  is  for  him  to  give  careful  attention  to  the 
subject  of  color  in  determining  the  early  enamels. 
The  metals  employed  by  the  cloisonne-workers 
should  also  be  studied.  Where  gold  was  used  it  had 
to  be  fine  gold,  as  alloys  would  not  withstand  the 
heat  of  the  enameler's  furnace.  Enamel  does  not 
hold  so  well  to  silver  as  to  gold  or  copper.  Then 
there  is  the  distinctive  polish  of  the  earlier  enamels. 
These  were  polished  by  hand,  in  consequence  of 

[266] 


ENAMELS  OF  CHINA  AND  OF  JAPAN 

which  their  surfaces  did  not  present  the  mirror-like 
polish  which  modern  contemporary  cloisonne  enamels 
exhibit.  The  surfaces  of  the  old  pieces  is  more 
like  that  of  an  egg-shell.  Again,  few  of  the  antique 
cloisonne  enamels  show  any  transparency,  a  fact 
probably  due  to  the  oxide  of  tin  in  the  solder.  In 
recent  work  the  cloisons  have,  in  many  instances, 
been  fastened  to  the  metal  bases  by  means  of  a  paste 
instead  of  by  the  soldering  method — surely  a  shifty 
mode,  and  one  marking  the  decline  of  the  true  ex- 
cellence of  the  ancient  art. 

Rudyard  Kipling's  "From  Sea  to  Sea"  gives  us  a 
careful  account  of  the  art  of  enameling  as  he  saw 
it  practised  by  the  minakari  or  enamelers  of  Kyoto. 
This  account  is  worth  looking  up.  While  the  work 
described  by  Kipling  was  that  of  the  modern  Japa- 
nese craftsmen  of  some  thirty  years  ago,  the  process 
was  the  same  as  practised  in  earlier  times  not  only  in 
Japan  but  likewise  in  China,  and  everywhere  that 
cloisonne  enamel  has  been  made.  The  process  in 
use  to-day  follows  the  same  tradition. 

The  Koreans  probably  acquired  the  art  of  cloi- 
sonne from  the  Chinese,  and  the  Japanese  from  the 
Koreans  (perhaps  not  before  the  fifteenth  century). 
Captain  Brinkley  says:  "One  thing  is  certain,  that 
until  the  nineteenth  century  enamels  were  employed 

[267] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

by  Japanese  decorators  for  accessory  purposes  only 
on  wood  and  porcelain  as  well  as  on  metal.  No 
such  things  as  vases,  plaques  or  bowls  having  their 
surface  covered  with  enamel  in  either  style."  This 
at  once  enables  the  collector  to  understand  at  how 
late  a  period,  comparatively,  cloisonne  enamel  be- 
came popular  in  Japan.  It  is  believed  that  early 
in  the  nineteenth  century  a  Japanese  craftsman, 
Kaji  Tsunekechi,  produced  the  first  vessel  covered 
completely  with  cloisonne  in  Japan.  This  was  at 
Nagoya.  It  won  him  great  fame  and  many  pupils. 
The  earlier  pieces  of  Japanese  cloisonne  followed 
in  pattern,  to  a  great  extent,  the  Chinese  enamels, 
and  though  they  are  somewhat  less  fine  in  color, 
they  often  excel  in  technique.  Until  1890  the 
cloisons  of  Japanese  work  were  soldered  to  the 
metal.  Since  that  date  a  vegetable  gum  has  often 
been  employed  for  the  purpose.  In  some  modern 
work  there  appears  to  be  no  evidence  of  cloisons 
whatsoever,  but  some  of  these  pieces  have  hidden 
cloisons.  The  Japanese  cloisonne  objects  are  usually 
enameled  on  the  back  or  on  the  inside  with  blue 
enamel.  Tokyo,  Yokohama,  and  Kyoto  are  the 
main  sources  of  the  modern  product. 

Thirty  years  ago  Louis  Gonse,  a  French  authority, 
wrote  that  the  Japanese  had  done  little  in  cloisonne, 

[268] 


Courtesy  Brooklyn  Museum  of  Art 

Chinese   Cloissonne  Palace  Censer,  Chia  Ching  Period,   1522-1567 


A 

&4 

^ 

1 

f...;  ... 

Courtesy  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 

Japanese  Armour  of  the  Feudal  Period,  showing  Swords  with  their  Sword- 
Guards   (Tsuba) 


ENAMELS  OF  CHINA  AND  OF  JAPAN 

but  since  that  time  its  production  has  increased 
enormously.  While  much  of  this  modern  work  is 
inferior  in  quality,  that  which  is  truly  fine  is  well 
worth  the  collector's  attention.  With  the  rapidly 
changing  conditions,  both  in  China  and  Japan,  such 
objects  will  greatly  enhance  in  value  in  a  few  years 
hence  and  come  to  be  properly  esteemed. 


[269] 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 

JAPANESE    SWORD-GUARDS 

SMALL  objects  beautiful  to  contemplate,  ex- 
quisite  in  workmanship,    intrinsically   valu- 
able, and  at  the  same  time  rich  in  historical 
associations  have  attracted  men  of  all  ages.     Little 
wonder  it  is  that  the  collector  of  the  objects  for  art  of 
the  Japanese  craftsmen  finds  in  them  an  ever  refresh- 
ing delight.     The  tsuha^  or  sword-guards  of  Japan, 
are  famed  for  their  workmanship,  beauty  of  design, 
and  historic  interest,  while  their  rarity  is  not  such  as 
to  discourage  the  collector.     A  few  years  ago,  in- 
deed, these  remarkable  examples  of  the  skill  of  the 
old-time  Japanese  metal-workers  could  have  been 
picked  up  in  the  Japanese  shops  in  America  and 
Europe  for  a  song.     Though  the  price  has  advanced 
precipitously,  fine  specimens  of  sword-guards  may 
still  be  had  at  far  from  prohibitive  prices,  when  one 
considers  that  almost  every  tsuba  can  be  counted  a 
supreme  example  of  the  metal-worker's  art.     There 
are  no  two  genuine  Japanese  sword-guards  precisely 
alike.     Each  is  distinctly  an  original  and  unique  ob- 

[270] 


JAPANESE  SWORD-GUARDS 

ject  into  whose  fashioning  has  gone  the  best  effort  of 
those  tirelessly  patient  and  conscientious  craftsmen 
of  the  Flowery  Kingdom. 

Feudal  Japan  has  disappeared,  and  with  it  the 
need  of  the  old  armorers'  art.  Fifty-eight  years  ago 
a  noted  Japanese  official  sought  in  vain  throughout 
Yedo — now  Tokyo — for  a  countryman  who  might 
prove  to  be  conversant  with  the  English  language,  a 
fact  that  gives  one  an  intimation  of  the  rapidity  with 
which  the  old  order  of  things  has  been  thrown  off 
and  the  new  taken  on.  It  was  just  forty  years  ago 
that  an  imperial  edict  abolished  the  wearing  of 
swords.  The  edict  was  obeyed  without  a  single 
known  instance  of  resistance,  and  the  shops  of  Kyoto, 
Tokyo,  and  Ozaka  dealing  in  art  objects  soon 
bristled  with  ancient  swords  and  sword  "furniture" 
from  those  samurai  who  a  few  months  before  held 
their  swords  as  sacred  as  their  persons. 

It  is  clear  that,  as  a  result  of  this  edict,  a  vast  num- 
ber of  swords  were  brought  into  the  market.  Nat- 
urally enough,  as  collectors  had  not  then  discovered 
the  tsuba,  countless  sword-guards  were  thrown  into 
the  melting-pot.  Later,  when  European,  American, 
and  Japanese  connoisseurs  came  to  rescue  the  tsuba 
from  oblivion,  the  native  craftsmen,  still  possessors 
of  a  recent  heritage  of  skill,  fell  to  making  sword- 

[271] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

guards  for  the  market.  Yet  even  these  late  nine- 
teenth- and,  one  must  suspect,  twentieth-century 
tsuba  are  often  beautiful,  ingenious,  and  interesting 
enough  to  be  desirable  acquisitions  on  their  own  ac- 
count. 

In  a  land  where  the  regard  for  the  honor  of  the 
sword  had  evolved  an  etiquette  and  almost  a  religion 
it  is  not  strange  that  the  art-loving  nation  which  con- 
ceived this  regard  should  have  applied  its  finest 
ability  to  the  decoration  of  the  sword  accessories,  un- 
til finally  these  became  veritable  treasure-troves  re- 
cording the  history  and  traditions  of  the  country  as 
well  as  its  symbolism  and  even  its  physical  aspect. 

The  "furniture"  of  a  Japanese  sword  consists  pri- 
marily of  the  tsuba,  or  guard, — a  circular  or  oval 
(sometimes  square  and  occasionally  irregular)  piece 
of  metal,  with  a  triangular  aperture  to  receive  the 
sword-blade.  On  each  side  is  a  smaller  opening  to 
receive  the  top  of  each  of  the  two  smaller  imple- 
ments that  accompany  many  of  the  Japanese  swords 
— the  kozuka  or  handle  of  the  short  dagger,  or 
kokatana,  and  the  kogai^  a  skewer-shaped  instru- 
ment. After  the  tsuba  or  sword-guard  come 
the  smaller  ornaments  placed  one  on  each  side 
of  the  hilt  to  enable  the  wielder  of  the  sword  to 
have   a   firmer   grasp    of   it.     These   small   metal 

[272] 


JAPANESE  SWORD-GUARDS 

ornaments  are  called  menuki.  We  find  them,  too, 
on  the  scabbards  of  swords,  especially  on  the  dag- 
gers or  wakizashi.  Of  great  beauty  and  interest 
are  the  kashira,  metal  caps  fitting  the  heads  of  the 
sword-handles,  secured  in  place  by  means  of  cords 
laterally  placed.  The  fuchi  are  oval  rings  through 
which  the  blade  passes ;  they  encircle  the  bases  of  the 
handles  where  the  blade  is  secured.  The  kurikata 
are  cleats  for  securing  the  cords  {sageo)  which  held 
back  the  warrior's  sleeve  whilst  he  was  fighting. 
And  finally  there  is  the  kojin,  the  metal  endpiece  of 
the  scabbard. 

There  is  not  one  of  the  ornamental  decorations  of 
a  Japanese  sword  that  would  not  have  awakened  the 
admiration  and  envy  of  Benvenuto  Cellini.  And  to 
think  that  after  the  edict  of  1877  there  were,  liter- 
ally, millions  of  them  relegated  to  the  rubbish  heaps 
of  the  Japanese  junkmen!  Too  few  of  the  menuki 
escaped  being  melted  up.  Theirs  is  a  fascination 
difficult  to  resist ;  but  the  tsuba  more  directly  engages 
our  attention  for  the  present,  and  the  smaller  orna- 
ments have  been  referred  to  here  only  in  order  that 
the  reader  may  have  some  suggestion  of  their  rela- 
tionship to  the  tsuba. 

The  earliest  name  of  a  sword-guard  maker  to  be 
met  with  is  that  of  Mitsutsune  (1390),  Kaneiye  of 

[273] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

Fushimi,  Umetada,  Shigeyoshi  (a  renowned  sword- 
smith),  Goto  Yujo  (died  1504),  Miochin  Nobuiye 
(1507-1555),  Iranken  Yamakichi  (1570)  and 
Hoan  were  all  renowned  for  their  tsuba  at  a  later 
period.  Nobuiye's  work  was  distinguished  for  the 
thin  soft  iron  with  a  thick  patina,  reddish  in  hue. 
His  tsuba  bear  traces  of  the  hammer,  as  do  the  tsuba 
of  his  followers  for  a  considerable  period.  To  Goto 
Yujo  (1426-1504)  and  other  members  of  the  Go- 
to family  Japanese  connoisseurs  give  preference.  A 
Japanese  expert  at  once  recognizes  in  the  Goto  tsuba 
the  iyebori  or  style  of  the  family  whose  genius  pro- 
duced them. 

The  work  on  those  sword-guards  whose  surface  is 
punched  into  a  texture  of  small  dots  until  it  resem- 
bles fish  roe  is  called  nanakoji,  and  for  tsuba  so 
finished  the  Goto  family  were  without  rivals. 
Mosle  suggests  that  one  of  the  requisites  in  the  Jap- 
anese connoisseur's  education  is  to  recognize  the 
iyebori  (personal  style)  of  the  first  thirteen  genera- 
tions of  the  Got5 1 

Piercing,  chasing,  and,  in  a  few  instances,  inlaying 
and  damascening  came  into  the  practice  of  the  metal- 
workers with  the  advent  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
Umetada  Shigeyoshi,  who  has  been  called  the 
"master  of  masters,"  began  the  free  use  of  the  graver 

[274] 


JAPANESE  SWORD-GUARDS 

in  ornamentation.  To  him  mainly  are  due  the 
decorative  changes  that  marked  the  tsuba  which  were 
made  during  this  period.  The  close  of  the  sixteenth 
century  brought  a  stretch  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
peaceful  years  after  the  turbulence  that  had  shaken 
Japan  until  then.  Naturally,  in  the  years  of  war 
the  sword  of  the  Japanese  fighter  called  for  guards 
practical  and  tough  in  texture,  something  that  would 
deflect  the  powerful  blow  of  an  opponent.  In  the 
years  of  peace  the  tsuba  were  mainly  adapted  to 
court  use  and  for  the  adornment  of  the  person.  The 
tsuba-makers  of  Osaka  produced  marvels  of 
damascening  in  gold  and  silver  on  iron.  The  second 
Kaneiye  encrusted  his  sword-guards  with  copper 
ornament,  and  Hirata  Donin  introduced  the  use  of 
translucent  enamels.  The  pierced  work  of  Kinai  of 
Echizen  is  supreme  in  its  elegance  of  form. 

The  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  gave  rise  to 
three  schools  of  tsuba  decoration — the  Nara  School, 
revolting  against  the  academic  style  of  the  Goto,  as 
did  the  Yokoya  School,  and  the  Omori  School.  In 
the  work  of  the  masters  of  all  three  of  these  schools, 
the  Got5  influence  may  still  be  traced,  even  though 
these  metal-workers  tried  to  get  away  from  it. 

The  School  of  Ishiguro,  Yedo,  of  the  early  part 
of  the  nineteenth  century  came  to  be  famous  for  its 

[275] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

flat  incised  work,  introducing  colored  surfaces. 
Kano  Natsuo  may  be  mentioned  as  the  last  tsuba- 
maker  of  distinction.  The  tsuba  of  the  period  be- 
tween 1840  and  1870  were  very  elaborately  deco- 
rated, and  obviously  could  never  have  been  used  for 
their  professed  purpose.  However,  the  collector 
will  wish  to  acquire  specimens  of  them,  if  only  as 
examples  of  the  marvelous  handicraft  of  the  Jap- 
anese metal-workers. 

Nearly  all  of  the  imitations  of  genuine  old  tsuba 
can  be  detected  by  holding  the  guard  on  one's  finger- 
tip and  striking  it  sharply  with  another  piece  of 
metal.  The  genuine  tsuba  will  emit  a  bell-like 
sound,  the  cast  imitation  a  dull  one.  A  perfect 
patina  is  always  to  be  sought  for  in  a  tsuba. 

One  of  the  most  important  styles  of  ornamenting 
metal  is  Zogan^  a  process  which  includes  damascen- 
ing and  is  sub-divided  into:  Honzogan  work,  in 
which  an  undercutting  retains  the  hammered-in  inlay 
(if  flush  with  the  surface,  this  is  called  Hirazogan^ 
and  if  it  is  in  relief,  Takazogan)^  and  Nunomezogan 
work,  which  derives  its  name  from  a  surface 
incised  to  represent  linen  mesh.  The  second  style 
of  ornamental  working  is  included  under  the  names 
Kehori  and  Katakiri.  With  kebori  work  the  lines 
are  finely  cut,  and  the  word  designating  this  class 

[276] 


JAPANESE  SWORD-GUARDS 

of  work  signifies  "hair  lines  engraved."  Katakiri 
work  produces  engraved  lines  varying  in  depth  to 
produce  the  effect  of  painting.  The  Japanese  hold 
this  style  in  high  favor.  The  third  style  of  orna- 
mental metal-work  is  Nikubori;  work  in  this  style 
is  carved  in  relief,  low  relief  being  distinguished  by 
the  name,  Unsunikubori^  and  high  relief,  Takabori. 
The  final  style  is  Uchidashi.  This  metal-work  is 
repousse,  and  is  often  to  be  found  in  combination 
with  nikobori. 

The  subject  of  Japanese  metal- work  must  ever 
prove  one  of  fascination  to  the  student  or  collector, 
and  even  a  very  small  collection  of  tsuba  will  serve 
to  cover  the  general  field  of  representative  styles. 
Like  so  many  other  articles  of  collection  appeal,  they 
combine  the  two  interests  of  former  utility  and 
present  beauty. 


[277] 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 

MEDALLIC    ART 

WHAT  a  marvelous  field  for  enjoyment 
is  opened  to  the  collector  by  medallic 
art!  To  the  uninitiated  any  coin  or 
medal  a  hundred  years  old  will  seem  instantly  to 
suggest  an  almost  prohibitive  value.  Nothing  could 
be  more  of  a  mistake.  As  a  matter  of  fact  in- 
teresting coins  and  medals  are  within  the  reach  of 
almost  any  one  for  a  remarkably  small  outlay.  Of 
course  tremendous  prices  are  given  for  tremendous 
rarities,  but  coin-  and  medal-collectors  in  America 
seem  more  interested  in  early  coined  United  States 
cents  which  exhibit  this  slight  variation  or  that,  than 
in  collecting  for  purely  the  beauty  and  the  historic 
charm  medallic  art  exhibits. 

Perhaps  I  should  not  quarrel  with  such,  for  this 
state  of  affairs  has,  in  times  past,  permitted  my  ac- 
quiring for  pennies  lovely  medals  and  marvelously 
beautiful  coins,  while  they  were  paying  out,  in  the 
same  sales,  small  fortunes  for  ugly  broken-down  cop- 

[278] 


MEDALLIC  ART 

pers  whose  sole  virtue  (in  my  sight)  lay  in  their  con- 
taining half  their  face-value  of  pure  copper ! 

But  we  need  not  linger  over  these.  Let  us  take 
thought  of  the  real  masterpieces  of  the  times  that 
were  and  the  times  that  are.  We  must  include  the 
remarkable  productions  of  our  contemporary  medal- 
ists, inheritors  of  the  skill  and  best  traditions  of  past 
masters. 

In  the  first  place,  medallic  art,  more  than  any 
other,  perhaps,  nearly  always  displays  prominent 
national  characteristics;  so  it  is  comparatively  easy 
to  distinguish  between  the  medals  of  various  coun- 
tries. 

The  debt  history  owes  to  coins  and  medals,  for  the 
clues  to  the  past  they  have  given  it,  is  enormous. 
Cities  and  sites  have  been  identified  by  their  means, 
dates  of  dynasties  made  certain  by  their  evidence, 
and  forgotten  deeds  of  heroes  recalled  through  their 
records.  A  few  years  ago  a  Sicilian  peasant  is  said 
to  have  discovered  the  only  specimen  extant  of  a 
rare  coin  of  antiquity  that  adds  certainty  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  site  of  Abacsenum,  whose  ruins  lie 
outside  the  walls  of  Tripi. 

As  Vasari  observed,  the  art  of  the  medalist  is  "a 
work  most  difficult  by  artists  as  it  holds  the  mean 
between  painting  and  sculpture."     That  it  does, 

[279] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

truly,  as  any  collection  of  early  medals  and  the  best 
medals  of  to-day  conclusively  proves.  At  the  end 
of  the  fifteenth  century  the  making  of  dies  as  it  was 
then  practised  permitted  only  designs  for  very  low- 
relief  to  be  struck  and  of  small  circumference — such 
a  size  as  we  see  in  the  coins  of  that  time.  Coins  like 
the  United  States  double  eagle  designed  by  Saint- 
Gaudens  could  not  then  have  been  attempted. 
Stamping  from  the  die  was  a  process  yet  in  its  in- 
fancy and  was  not  then  able  to  meet  the  require- 
ments of  striking  the  larger  medal  forms;  hence 
these  were  invariably  cast.  First  a  model  in  wax 
was  made  and  embedded  in  some  fine  molding-sub- 
stance, such  as  earth  or  charcoal.  Having  fitted 
itself  perfectly  into  every  crevice  of  the  wax  model, 
this  mold  of  earth  was  stiffened  by  a  lye  solution; 
the  wax  was  melted  out,  and  molten  metal  was 
poured  from  a  crucible  into  the  mold  which  was 
left  behind.  Whether  or  not  replicas  were  made 
from  the  same  mold  is  a  question  that  remains  un- 
solved. Probably  not,  but  instead  they  may  have 
been  made  from  the  new  molds  of  new  wax  models 
formed  in  plaster  molds  from  plaster  casts  of  the 
originals.  When  removed  from  its  mold  the  medal 
was  worked  over  with  a  fine  gritty  substance,  and 
often  with  finishing  instruments.     Moreover,   the 

[280] 


MEDALLIC  ART 

edges  had  to  be  filed  smooth,  as  the  casting  always 
left  them  rough.  In  many  cases  it  is  apparent  that 
engraving  was  resorted  to  in  order  that  outlines 
might  be  emphasized,  especially  in  indicating  hair. 

In  very  early  days  medals  afforded  a  convenient 
kind  of  portrait  for  transmisssion  to  distant  friends; 
large  numbers  of  medals,  too,  were  buried  under  the 
foundations  of  buildings  erected  by  a  prince  or  a 
state,  as  in  our  own  time  coins  are  placed  under  the 
corner-stone  of  a  public  edifice.  For  instance,  in 
the  cellar  walls  of  the  Palazzo  Venezia  in  Rome, 
built  by  Pope  Paul  II,  twenty  medals  of  that  pope 
were  found.  Some  bore  on  the  reverse  a  representa- 
tion of  the  palace,  others  the  arms  of  the  pope  with 
the  legend:  "Has  iEdes  Condidit."  They  were 
enclosed  in  an  earthenware  case  that  had  to  be  broken 
in  order  to  release  the  contents.  It  is  safe  to  assume 
that  nearly  all  early  medals  bearing  representations 
of  buildings  were  cast  for  like  commemorative  pur- 
poses. 

It  remained  for  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century  to  witness  the  inauguration  of  the  art  of 
striking  medals  from  engraved  dies.  In  the  British 
Museum  there  is  an  example  of  a  medal  of  Pope 
Julius  II  by  Francesco  Francia  the  painter,  who  be- 
sides being  a  painter  and  a  medalist  was  also  a  gold- 

[281] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

smith  and  likewise  designed  the  font  of  italic  type 
for  Aldus  Manutius  the  printer.  This  medal  of 
Pope  Julius  was  probably  struck  about  the  year  1506. 
It  and  the  medals  of  Benvenuto  Cellini  in  the 
Museo  Nazionali  in  Florence  (which  latter  medals 
are  perhaps  the  finest  examples  of  struck  medals  of 
the  period,  though  by  no  means  the  most  artistic) 
occasionally  turn  up  in  public  sales.  They,  of 
course,  command  top-notch  prices,  although  a  truly 
fine  gold  coin  from  Cellini's  dies,  a  coin  of  undoubted 
authenticity,  was  purchased  in  London  by  the  author 
for  two  pounds,  and  from  a  dealer  of  international 
reputation. 

When  Francia  and  Cellini  were  engraving  their 
dies  the  new  method  was  still  confined  to  medals  of 
smaller  circumference,  for  all  the  larger  ones  as  yet 
continued  to  be  cast,  even  down  to  the  end  of  the 
sixteenth  century;  and  of  course  casting  is  a  method 
in  very  general  use  to-day.  The  modern  process 
of  reducing  models  by  means  of  a  clever  mechanical 
instrument  enables  the  medalist  to  work  out  the  re- 
lief without  size  restrictions,  from  which  the  reduced 
size  desired  for  the  medal  is  finally  obtained  with 
absolute  fidelity.  In  fact,  modem  medals  are  often 
produced  in  various  sizes  by  an  ingenious  mechanical 
process,  without  any  loss  in  effect  from  the  same 

[282] 


MEDALLIC  ART 

original.  Roty's  medal  for  the  French  Alpine  Club 
is  such  an  example. 

One  may  see  that  the  change  from  casting  to 
striking  medals  greatly  affected  the  art  of  the  medal- 
ist. The  preparation  of  the  model  for  casting  re- 
quired a  technique  almost  identical  with  that  of  the 
sculptor  preparing  for  a  bronze  statue,  the  sculp- 
tor in  marble  of  course  having  to  take  into  account 
further  matters  incident  to  the  substance  he  was 
finally  to  work  in.  On  the  other  hand,  the  die-en- 
graver's art  required  a  totally  different  technique,  a 
skill  akin  to  the  requirements  of  gem-engraving  and 
also  to  the  craft  of  a  goldsmith.  When  cast  medals 
became  reduced  to  the  size  of  struck  medals,  the 
reduction  required  finer  workmanship  in  the  orig- 
inal modeling  and  in  the  finishing.  This  again 
brought  the  medalist  nearer  the  goldsmith.  Ac- 
cordingly, we  find  Francia,  Cellini,  Valerio  Belli, 
Cesati,  Annibale  Fontana,  Leone  Leoni,  and  others 
at  once  goldsmiths  or  gem-engravers  and  medalists. 

It  is  interesting  to  visit  some  museum  collection 
and  compare  a  cast  medal  by  Pisano  with  a  struck 
medal  by  Cellini,  or  with  one  by  Bernardi,  in  order 
to  note  their  differences.  Very  often  the  extreme 
fineness  in  finish  of  early  Italian  medals  makes  them 
appear  at  first  sight  struck  when  in  reality  they  have 

[283] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

been  cast.  This  is  especially  noticeable  in  the 
medals  of  Pastorino  of  Siena,  who  very  nearly 
brought  medallic  portraiture  to  its  perfection.  His 
manner  is  full  of  delicacy  and  beauty,  but  it  just 
misses  the  mark  in  requisite  vigor. 

There  are  various  medals  intimately  connected 
with  American  history,  though  many  of  them  have 
been  executed  by  alien  artists.  However,  with  the 
example  set  by  Augustus  Saint-Gaudens,  Frederick 
Mac  Monnies,  Victor  D.  Brenner,  Paul  Manship, 
James  Earle  Fraser,  John  Flanagan,  and  others,  it  is 
to  be  hoped  that  more  of  our  artists  will  turn  to  this 
field  and  that  more  encouragement,  public  and  pri- 
vate, will  be  given  in  it.  We  might  well  emulate 
the  attention  that  has  been  given  to  the  subject  in 
France. 

Fine  medals  and  coins  should  be  tenderly  treated. 
Every  scratch  mars  their  beauty.  Each  should  be 
kept  protected  from  abrasion.  It  is  vandalism  to 
subject  a  medal  or  coin  to  an  unskilled  scouring  or 
scraping.  The  early  Italians  were  greatly  interested 
in  medallic  art  and  appreciated  beautiful  medals  as 
perhaps  no  other  people  has  ever  done.  There  are, 
of  course,  those  soulless  persons  who  find  in  a  medal 
or  an  uncurrent  coin  only  a  suggestion  of  something 
that  might  once  havfe  been  spent  but  which  cannot  be 

[284] 


MEDALLIC  ART 

now,  and  who,  with  a  shrug,  refuse  to  share  the  en- 
thusiast's pleasure.  The  collector  must  not  hope  to 
win  such  to  the  interest  with  which  medallic  art  is 
invested. 


[285] 


CHAPTER  XXXV 

ENGRAVED    GEMS 

IN  Beau  BrummePs  time  not  to  know  all  about 
gem-engraving,  the  intaglio  and  the  cameo,  was 
thought  to  be  devoid  of  one  of  the  most  import- 
ant cultural  attributes  of  every  eighteenth-century 
gentleman.  Those  were  the  picturesque  days  of 
post-riders  and  sealing-wax,  days  that  scarcely 
anticipated  the  letter-writing  necessities  of  our  own 
time,  when  we  can  scarcely  stop  to  put  on  the  stamp 
and  one  lick  of  the  flap  has  taken  the  place  of  the 
perfumed  elegance  of  yesterday's  wafer,  leisurely 
impressed  with  some  exquisite  seal. 

It  was  only  natural  then  that  the  seal  should  be  a 
factor  in  the  diversions  of  polite  society  while  pos- 
sessing a  utility  not  yet  exterminated  by  demands 
on  man's  time.  Not  only  did  every  gentleman  have 
a  seal  ring,  but  often  he  had  several,  and  sometimes 
many  for  different  occasions.  Frequently  these  seals 
or  sigilii^  as  the  Latins  called  them,  were  engraved 
with  devices  directly  upon  metal.  However,  the  far 
more  popular  method  was  that  which  is  one  of  our 

[286] 


ENGRAVED  GEMS 

chief  heritages  from  antiquity — engraving  on  gems 
or  on  semi-precious  stones  by  means  of  the  intaglio 
process.  Intaglio^  derived  from  the  Italian  intag- 
liere  (to  cut  into),  means  incised  engraving,  as  op- 
posed to  the  cameo  process,  or  engraving  in  relief. 
Cameo-engraving  is  a  later  art,  as  generally  prac- 
tised, and  cannot  compare  with  that  of  intaglio-en- 
graving, with  which  it  has  nothing  in  common  but 
its  subject  and  the  material  on  which  it  is  cut.  An 
intaglio  is  the  product  of  a  reverse  and  much  more 
difficult  process  than  that  by  which  the  cameo  is 
evolved.  An  impression  from  a  well-cut  intaglio 
leaves  a  very  fine  design  in  relief,  and  it  is  marvelous 
to  behold  the  results  obtained  by  the  infinite  pains  of 
gem-engravers.  In  our  own  day  the  masters  of  the 
art  can  be  counted  on  the  fingers  of  one  hand,  so 
greatly  has  the  demand  for  work  of  the  sort  dimin- 
ished. Indeed,  there  is  almost  no  call  for  it  in  Amer- 
ica. Probably  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that  so  few 
people  really  either  understand  the  importance  of  the 
subject,  the  history  of  glyptic  art,  or  realize  the 
beauty  of  the  fine  works  of  the  sort. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  although  engraved 
gems,  unlike  Greek  painted  vases,  are  chiefly  valu- 
able as  handmaids  to  history  in  preserving  to  us  con- 
temporary portraits  of  their  times,  they  still  make 

[287] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

known  to  us,  as  Collingnon  says,  a  whole  phase  of 
Greek  thought  that  was  developed  in  the  Mace- 
donian epoch. 

The  Greeks  never  greatly  favored  the  Egyptian 
scarab  beetle-form  for  engraved  gems  and  later  in- 
troduced the  oval,  which  is  known  as  the  scaraboid 
form,  especially  popular  from  600  b.  c.  to  500  b.  c, 
in  the  Archaic  Period.  With  primitive  engraved 
gems  and  scarabs  (2500  b.  c.  to  900  b.  c.)  as  well 
as  with  later  ones,  the  archseologist  has  to  move 
cautiously,  since  imitations  were  manufactured  at  a 
very  early  time.  The  researches  in  Crete  by  Arthur 
Evans  brought  to  light  great  numbers  of  engraved 
seals  and  stones  that  are  unquestionably  of  remote 
antiquity,  and,  by  the  form  of  their  engraved  char- 
acters, indicate  the  existence  of  a  system  of  writing 
of  a  far  earlier  date  than  had  been  assigned  to  cal- 
ligraphy on  Greek  soil.  The  most  interesting  ex- 
amples of  this  class  were  found  in  the  Palace  of 
Minos  at  Cnossos,  and  were  used  for  sealing  docu- 
ments in  the  Cretan  script,  while  others  were  used 
in  sealing  storage  vessels.  That  there  is  nothing 
new  under  the  sun  seems  again  to  have  been  demon- 
strated in  the  discovery  at  Mycense  of  a  massive  en- 
graved signet  portraying  three  ladies  in  modern-look- 
ing divided  skirts,  a  subject  quite  as  up-to-date  as 

[288] 


ENGRAVED  GEMS 

the  beflounced  corseted,  frilled,  and  bonneted  ladies 
that  the  Cretan  frescos  disclosed  a  few  years  ago,  to 
the  bewilderment  of  the  Parisian  dressmakers. 

However,  the  intaglii  which  typically  mark  the 
early  Mycenaean  period  are  the  Island  Stones  (900 
B.  c.  to  600  B.  c),  a  name  given  to  a  lenticular 
stone  of  steatite,  rock  crystal,  carnelian,  or  chal- 
cedony, such  stones  being  chiefly  found  in  the  Greek 
islands  and  in  the  Mediterranean  region,  where 
Mycenaean  remains  are  to  be  found.  The  deco- 
rative devices  employed  were  nearly  always  ani- 
mals, such  as  the  lion,  deer,  bull,  goat,  singly  or 
quasi-heraldically  arranged  in  pairs,  facing  in  or  fac- 
ing out.  Their  artistic  merit  was  often  of  a  high 
order,  though  this  excellence  was  somewhat  over- 
balanced by  the  figures  being  arranged  to  occupy 
the  entire  area  of  a  gem's  surface.  As  Dr.  Walters 
of  the  British  Museum  observed,  "this  horror  vacui^ 
or  dread  of  leaving  a  vacant  space,  was  characteristic 
of  Greek  artists  at  all  periods." 

The  Transitional  Period  proper,  from  500  b.  c. 
to  450  B.  c,  produced  very  fine  gems  with  genre 
subjects.  These  were  probably  influenced  somewhat 
by  the  freedom  acquired  by  the  Greek  vase-painters, 
whose  art  reached  its  perfection  in  that  era.  From 
thence  onward  no  subject  seems  to  have  daunted  the 

[289] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

gem-engraver  who  reproduced  the  most  intricate  de- 
tails and  reduced  to  miniature  marvelously  well  the 
beauties  of  those  groups  of  colossal  statuary  that  par- 
ticularly inspired  him,  subjects  from  paintings  or  his 
own  devices,  or  figures,  heads  and  portraits  of  his 
contemporaries,  men,  women  and  children — portraits 
which  must  have  been  possessed  of  the  virtue  of  like- 
nesses to  an  extraordinary  degree,  else  they  would 
not  for  centuries  have  continued  in  such  favor.  As 
Ren  ton  says,  "we  are  forcefully  reminded  of  the  ex- 
treme durability  of  engraved  gems  when  we  reflect 
that  some  at  the  present  time  contained  in  our  mu- 
seums and  collections  have  been  buried  in  tombs  or 
in  the  earth;  others  have  been  thrown  upon  the 
shore,  washed  by  the  sea  or  exposed  to  fire,  pillage, 
and  other  dangers,  but  still  appearing  with  the  en- 
graving in  some  instances  as  clear,  sharp,  and  de- 
fined as  it  was  the  day  they  left  the  artist's  hands." 
It  is  this  careful  and  peculiar  finish  to  the  work 
that  distinguishes  the  truly  antique  gems  from  the 
spurious. 

We  have  little  reliable  data  concerning  the  ar- 
tists in  glyptic  art  from  the  primitive  period  repre- 
sented by  the  Samian  Theodorus,  who  made  the  fa- 
mous ring  for  Polycrates,  to  the  period  of  the  art's 
perfection,  450  b.  c.  to  around  400  b.  c.     To  the 

[290] 


ENGRAVED  GEMS 

latter  period  belongs,  by  right  of  his  excellence, 
Pyrgoteles,  who  engraved  the  seals  of  Alexander. 

The  least  doubtful  names,  perhaps,  are  those 
of  Agathopous,  Apollonides,  Aspasios,  Athenidn, 
Boethos,  Dexamenos,  Dioskourides,  Epitynchanos, 
Herakleides,  Herophilos,  Hyllos,  Mykon,  Nikan- 
drus,  Onesus,  Pamphilos,  Protarchos,  Solon,  and 
Teukrus,  tedious  to  catalogue  perhaps,  still  a  small 
number  out  of  proportion  to  the  vast  quantity  of 
intaglii  that  have  been  recovered  from  the  past. 
We  are  sure  of  Dioskourides  under  Augustus,  but 
even  in  antiquity  names  were  forged  upon  gems  at 
a  later  date  or  by  an  alien  hand,  such  forgeries  be- 
ing especially  common  from  the  time  of  the  Renais- 
sance on.  Indeed,  it  became  quite  as  much  the 
fashion  to  mutilate  antique  gems  by  adding  bogus 
signatures  as  it  did  later  to  imitate  the  glyptic  art 
of  the  ancients  and  attempt  to  pawn  ofF  forgeries 
and  fabrications  on  the  enthusiastic  but  indiscrim- 
inating.  Of  this  the  reader  will  find  further  men- 
tion in  the  chapter  on  Fraudulent  Art,  which  fol- 
lows. In  ancient  times  intaglii  were  also  imitated 
in  glass  and  much  affected  by  the  poorer  classes,  so 
early  had  the  idea  of  cheap  imitation  jewelry  taken 
root. 

However,  such  work  was  obviously  false,  while 
[291] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

there  have  been  some  very  clever  imitations  engraved 
on  very  fine  gems.  The  famous  Poniatowski  Col- 
lection was  the  greatest  of  the  gigantic  frauds  of  the 
sort  perpetrated.  In  the  happier  days  of  the  First 
Empire  the  patronage  of  the  Empress  Josephine  had 
brought  appreciation  of  the  glyptic  art  to  a  pinnacle, 
vi^hence  it  fell  from  mere  discouragement  by  the  ex- 
position of  the  Poniatowski  Collection  fraud  in  a 
London  market.  These  gems  might  best  be  described 
as  regular  pictures  in  stone  and  portraits  of  all  the 
celebrated  men  of  antiquity,  each  blandly  "authen- 
ticated" with  his  proper  name  and  the  artist's  signa- 
ture! No  wonder  collectors  and  amateurs  turned, 
frightened,  to  scan  their  own  collections.  If  such 
traffic  was  fostered  by  dealers  of  their  time,  what 
recourse  had  they  outside  careful  and  arduous 
scholarship?  Still,  minute  rudimentary  knowledge 
of  gem-engraving  and  its  chronological  phases  should 
at  once  have  set  them  at  ease.  The  amateur  of  to- 
day knows  that  a  signed  gem  is  an  exception  to  the 
rule  and  rests  secure  in  the  knowledge. 

Although  the  various  periods  of  Greek  glyptic  art 
have  been  indicated,  it  may  be  helpful  to  repeat  them 
here  in  tabulated  form,  following  mainly  Walter's 
scheme  of  classification. 

[292] 


ENGRAVED  GEMS 

I  Prehistoric  Period — 2500  to  900  b.  c.  Primitive  seal 
stones,  imported  cylinders. 

II  Early  Period — 900  to  600  b.  c.  Island  gems.  My- 
cenaean era. 

III  Archaic  Period — 600  to  500  b.  c.     Scaraboids  super- 
sede scarabs. 

IV  Transitional    Period — 500    to   450    b.  c.     Finely   en- 
graved gems  and  prevalence  of  genre  subjects. 

V  Culminating  Period — ^450  to  400  b.  c.  Perfection  in 
engraved  gems. 

Greek  gems  of  the  latest  period  are  rare  in  com- 
parison with  those  of  periods  preceding  and  follow- 
ing. 

That  Greek  influence  reached  Etruria  has  been 
shown  by  full  evidence  in  many  ways,  and  we  have 
large  numbers  of  engraved  gems  from  Etruscan 
tombs  of  the  fifth  and  fourth  centuries,  these  intaglii 
having  for  their  subjects  most  commonly  incidents 
from  legends  of  the  Greek  heroes.  It  is  well  to  note 
that  deities  are  rarely  portrayed  on  Etruscan  gems, 
whose  form  was  usually  that  of  the  scarab.  The 
fourth  century  finds  their  workmanship  greatly  de- 
teriorating. 

The  Romans  were  very  fond  of  engraved  gems  and 
practised  the  glyptic  art  from  early  times.  When 
Constantine  the  Great  removed  the  seat  of  the  Ro- 
man Empire  to  Constantinople  in  329  a.  d.  this  art, 

[293] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

like  the  other  arts,  followed  him  thither,  of  course; 
but  for  over  a  thousand  years  succeeding  the  intaglii 
produced  seldom  attained  great  excellence  and  the 
taste  for  engraved  gems  followed  other  esthetic 
tendencies  into  the  obscure  retirement  of  the  dark 
ages.  In  fact,  the  glyptic  art  almost  became  extinct, 
but  with  the  expulsion  of  the  Greeks  from  Constan- 
tinople by  Mahomet  in  1453  a.  d.  it  found  itself 
again  on  Italian  soil,  thereafter  to  grow  strong  and 
flourish  from  the  root  it  had  taken. 

Just  as  the  ecclesiastics  converted  Greek  painted 
vases  to  altar  use  and  sculptured  sarcophagi  into  con- 
tainers of  holy  water,  they  now  turned  their  attention 
to  engraved  gems  and  rescued  these  baubles  from  the 
reproach  of  being  mere  vanities  by  clothing  their  sub- 
jects with  Christian  legends.  Probably  to  this  fact 
we  owe  the  preservation  of  some  of  our  finest  ex- 
amples. It  was  a  difficult  task  to  rechristen  the  gems 
and  endow  them  with  a  sacred  character  quite  out  of 
keeping  with  their  conception.  However,  the  early 
church  was  ingenious  and  gave  to  Jupiter  with  his 
eagle  the  significance  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist, 
while  Melpomene  did  very  well  for  Salome  with 
John  the  Baptist's  head.  However,  gem-engravers 
arose  to  help  truth  out  with  veritable  subjects,  and 
the  church  became  a  powerful  patron  of  the  art  of 

[294] 


ENGRAVED  GEMS 

gem-engraving.  Prelates  and  princes  hastened  to 
have  their  fancies  carried  out  in  intaglii,  until  the 
cinquecento  produced  a  host  of  clever  engravers  cap- 
able of  catering  to  any  taste  or  to  any  fad  or  fancy. 
About  this  time  the  forms  of  intaglii  were  greatly 
enlarged. 

Lorenzo  de'  Medici  and  his  successors  were  munifi- 
cent patrons  of  the  gem-engraver,  and  not  only 
formed  splendid  collections  of  intaglii  but  en- 
couraged engravers  in  Florence,  and  by  the  middle 
of  the  fifteenth  century  a  graceful  classic  style  had 
been  revived.  Giovanni,  surnamed  Delia  Corniole, 
was  one  of  the  most  excellent  artists  of  the  time,  and 
in  his  everlastingly  entertaining  "Memoirs"  Benven- 
uto  Cellini  speaks  of  Micheletto,  who  was  "very 
clever  at  engraving  carnelians,  an  old  man  and  of 
great  celebrity."  This  was  the  engraver  whom  Vas- 
ari  calls  by  the  affectionate  diminutive  "Michelino," 
but  Cellini  himself  later  calls  him  "Michele." 

The  gem-engravers  of  the  sixteenth  century  were 
prolific,  and  their  work  appealed  immensely  to  the 
French  taste.  Francis  I  was  a  liberal  patron  of  the 
glyptic  art  and  had  at  his  court  the  renowned  gem- 
engraver,  Matteo  del  Nassaro  of  Verona.  Probably 
the  first  French  gem-engraver  of  note  was  Julien  de 
Fontenay,  sometimes  known  as  Coldore,  who  exe- 

[295] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

cuted  an  intaglio  portrait  of  Henry  IV,  and  was 
later  invited  to  England  by  Queen  Elizabeth.  Sub- 
sequently a  taste  for  the  art  developed  in  England, 
although  the  culmination  of  encouragement  was  not 
reached  until  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
when  collecting  engraved  gems  became  a  mania  with 
many  and  good  examples  brought  huge  prices.  Up 
to  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  influ- 
ence of  classic  designs  obtained.  King  George 
III  was  a  liberal  patron  of  gem-engravers,  and  to  the 
foresight  of  the  Duke  of  Devonshire  and  Marl- 
borough the  world  owes  the  preservation  of  some 
of  the  finest  examples  extant  of  intaglii  of  any 
time. 

The  works  of  such  classicists  as  Marchant,  who 
studied  in  Rome  many  years,  and  of  his  successor, 
Burch,  a  Royal  Academician,  extending  over  a  period 
of  years  from  1750  to  1815  or  thereabouts,  are  well 
worth  while,  and  would  reveal  an  excellence  of  exe- 
cution unsurpassed.  Then  followed  such  men  as 
Weigall,  Bragg,  Grew,  and  in  our  own  day  the  Ren- 
tons,  who  engraved  intaglii  for  members  of  the  royal 
family. 

Since  the  heraldic  style  has  followed  the  classic, 
interest  in  the  art  of  intaglio-engraving  has  waned 
tremendously  and  can  be  brought  back  only  by  the 

[296] 


ENGRAVED  GEMS 

revival  of  that  classic  spirit  which,  after  all,  un- 
derlies everything  that  is  best  the  world  over,  in  art 
or  in  literature. 

The  substances  employed  by  the  gem-engravers 
are  ameth)^st,  hyacinth,  agate,  carnelian,  chalcedony, 
crystal,  and  other  precious  gems.  In  our  own  day 
almost  every  stone  is  employed.  The  lapidary  must 
not  be  confused  with  the  gem-engraver.  The  first 
prepares  the  stone  to  receive  the  work  of  the  second, 
just  as  the  wood-sawyer  prepares  the  material  for  the 
carpenter,  or  the  man  at  the  quarry  the  block  for  the 
sculptor.  Pliny  described  at  some  length  the  process 
of  gem-engraving  in  his  day.  As  to  the  ancient 
mode  of  engraving  gems,  in  which  the  drill  wheel 
and  diamond  point  were  used,  the  use  of  the  wheel 
is  especially  noticeable  in  the  lenticular  Island  gems ; 
it  was  a  small  bronze  disk  set  on  a  shaft  of  metal 
worked  like  the  drill  with  a  bow  and  tube  of  emery 
powder;  its  purpose  was  for  cutting  lines  to  connect 
the  points  made  by  the  drill,  or  else  for  broad,  sunken 
surfaces.  The  diamond  point,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  used  like  a  pencil,  with  the  hand  alone;  it  re- 
sembles the  modern  glass-cutting  diamond  and  was 
employed  for  giving  an  artistic  finish  to  the  design, 
which  could  of  course  be  best  done  with  the  free 
hand.     The  use  of  this  tool  required  great  technical 

[297] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

skill,  the  results  of  which  may  clearly  be  seen  on  some 
gems  of  the  best  period. 

In  passing  it  is  interesting  to  note  the  devices  to 
which  makers  of  fraudulent  "antique"  intaglii  have 
been  known  to  resort.  As  an  instance,  that  misty 
dullness  of  the  stone  which  only  age  is  supposed  to 
give  is  produced  in  Italy  by  forcing  the  smaller  en- 
graved gems  down  the  unwilling  gullets  of  defence- 
less turkeys,  whereupon  the  action  of  the  gastric  juice 
and  the  gritty  substances  in  the  gizzard  outdo  the 
devices  of  Time  himself,  as  the  funeral  of  the  un- 
happy bird  reveals  to  the  dissecting  and  dishonest 
fabricator. 


[298] 


CHAPTER  XXXVI 

FRAUDULENT    ART    OBJECTS 

THE  detection  of  fraudulent  antiques  and 
curios  and  other  bogus  works  of  art  has  be- 
come a  science.  Phsedrus,  who  lived  and 
wrote  in  the  time  of  Tiberius  Caesar,  tells  in  his  fif- 
tieth fable  of  how  his  contemporaries  carved  the 
name  of  Praxiteles  on  their  marbles  and  the  name  of 
Myron  on  everything  they  wrought  in  silver,  in  order 
that  their  productions  might  pass  as  masterpieces  of 
those  supreme  Hellenic  artists. 

Though  the  Romans  were  an  art-loving  people, 
they  openly  connived  at  art-fraud,  but  for  esthetic 
reasons,  as  we  learn  from  Pliny.  He  tells  us  that 
in  his  time  the  coins  of  Rome  were  so  clumsily 
modeled  and  so  basely  cast  that  several  artists  made 
new  molds,  treating  the  designs  of  the  mint  more 
carefully,  and  produced  spurious  coins  which  were 
eagerly  sought  in  place  of  the  inartistic  legal  tender. 

Michelangelo,  piqued  at  the  extravagant  attention 
paid  the  antiques  (to  the  exclusion  of  interest  in  his 
early  struggles  for  recognition),  conceived  the  clever 

[299] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

idea  of  doing  an  Eros  in  marble  after  his  own  de- 
sign, burying  the  work  in  mud  for  some  months,  and 
then  digging  it  up  in  the  presence  of  certain  noble 
collectors.  These  gentlemen  went  mad  over  its 
beauty,  proclaiming  it  to  be  the  greatest  relic 
antiquity  had  left  them.  Michelangelo  finally  dis- 
closed to  them  his  own  initials,  which  he  had  carved 
in  a  hidden  fold  of  the  wings,  and  was  highly  amused 
at  the  discomfiture  of  his  companions.  They,  how- 
ever, came  to  their  senses  and  had  the  good  grace  to 
recognize  the  towering  genius  who  stood  laughing 
before  them.  Indeed,  one  of  them  became  his  fore- 
most patron. 

This  was  a  harmless  trick  conceived  for  salutary 
purposes,  and  not  at  all  to  be  classed  with  the  ex- 
ploits of  Gambello,  Bassiano,  or  Giovanni  del 
Cavino,  whose  forgeries  of  Roman  medals  were 
particularly  skilful,  though  not  proof  against  modem 
scientific  methods  of  uncovering  frauds.  No  wonder 
one  of  the  ancient  writers  declared  that,  "the  very 
nerves  and  sinews  of  knowledge  consist  of  believing 
nothing  rashly."  This  was  especially  true  in  the 
days  of  the  Renaissance,  when  a  study  of  the  antique 
came  so  quickly  into  fashion,  and  in  the  train  of  it 
such  efforts  to  collect  ancient  objects  of  art  that  some 
of  the  unscrupulous  but  skilful  artists  and  artisans  of 

[300] 


FRAUDULENT  ART  OBJECTS 

the  time  could  scarcely  resist  the  temptations  offered 
by  the  ease  with  which  clever  art-forgeries  were 
palmed  off  upon  the  gullible,  who  paid  enormous 
prices  for  them.  We  know  how  Andreini  of  old- 
time  Florence  forged  Greek  signatures  to  ancient  un- 
signed intaglii  and  how  Flavio  Sirletti  lent  his  skill 
to  it  with  the  aid  of  Pliny's  record  of  ancient  sculp- 
tors. The  collection  of  Prince  Poniatowski,  nephew 
of  the  last  King  of  Poland,  contained  some  three 
thousand  fraudulent  engraved  gems !  As  all  of  these 
gems  were  very  beautiful  in  themselves,  and  as 
nearly  all  of  their  subjects  were  original  with  their 
engravers,  it  is  unfortunate  that  such  excellent  and 
exquisitely  done  work  could  not  have  stood  forth  on 
its  own  merits  to  cast  fame  and  not  shame  on  the 
cunning  hands  that  produced  them. 

Some  counterfeiting  is  too  laborious  for  profit,  but 
it  is  marvelous  to  see  some  of  the  things  that 
emanated  in  the  early  days  from  the  shameless  fake- 
factories  of  Pietro  Fondi  and  others  at  Venice  and  in 
Corfu.  The  Sienese,  too,  were  skilful  copyists  of 
the  various  trecento,  quattrocento,  and  cinquecento 
objects  of  art.  Terra-cotta  figurines  and  Greek  and 
Etruscan  vases  have  ever  been  subjects  for  the  hand 
of  the  forger  and  fabricator  of  antiques. 

Pottery  and  porcelain  have  always  seemed  to 
[301 1 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

tempt  art-forgers  and  imitators.  The  way  of  the 
collector  of  Chinese  and  other  Oriental  porcelains 
and  pottery  has  been  made  especially  difficult  in  con- 
sequence. Even  Bernard  Palissy  is  believed  by 
some  to  have  imitated  the  wares  of  Briot,  and  in 
turn  imitations  of  these  imitations  were  once  ac- 
quired by  a  museum.  In  our  own  day  Palissy's 
own  ware  has  been  imitated  by  Lesnes,  Barbizet, 
and  M.  Pall.  Perhaps  the  London  Jarman  was 
the  prince  of  fakers.  He  obtained  undecorated 
Sevres  pieces  from  France  and  had  a  Quaker  potter 
from  Staffordshire,  one  Randall  by  name,  add  all 
sorts  of  delightful  scenes.  They  were  purchased  by 
the  royal  family,  who  took  the  pieces  on  good  faith 
as  being  Sevres  decorations. 

European  enamels  and  early  ivories  have  not 
escaped  attention  at  the  forger's  hand.  When  Sir 
A.  W.  Franks  was  innocently  attempting  to  arrange 
the  purchase  of  the  Diptychion  Leodiense  for  eight 
hundred  pounds  in  England,  he  discovered  that  this 
object  was  nothing  more  than  a  clever  combination 
of  copies  of  two  other  panels  of  unquestioned 
authenticity. 

And  so  things  go  merrily  on,  even  in  this  day  and 
generation.     But  your   true  collector  is  one   who 

[302] 


FRAUDULENT  ART  OBJECTS 

studies  the  objects  he  collects  and  he  is  not  likely  to 
be  easily  deceived.  Photography  has  stretched  for- 
ward a  helping  hand  and  by  means  of  enlarged 
photographic  prints  of  a  subject  in  dispute,  the 
minute  comparisons  between  authenticated  and 
merely  attributed  works  of  a  period  may  be  studied. 
It  was  Juvenal  who  coined  the  name  ''rara  avis" ; 
and  the  impatient  collector  who  would  acquire  a 
"rare  bird"  of  art  as  it  flies  toward  him  from  the 
horizon  of  opportunity  must  be  sure  he  knows  some- 
thing of  its  "ornithology'*  before  he  rushes  recklessly 
forth,  perchance  to  put  the  salt  of  good  money  on 
some  worthless  tail. 

There  is  told  the  story  of  a  certain  Bavarian  col- 
lector who  began  to  doubt  the  authenticity  of  a  little 
statuette  in  his  possession.  Finally  he  sent  for  a 
noted  authority  on  the  subject,  who  tried  to  reassure 
him.  As  the  collector  did  not  seem  convinced,  the 
expert,  as  a  last  resort,  made  mention  of  a  certain 
test  that  might,  though  with  danger  to  the  object,  be 
applied.  The  collector  insisted  on  the  attempt,  in 
the  course  of  which  the  statuette  was  hopelessly  de- 
faced, though  the  accident  confirmed  the  expert's 
opinion.  "Ah,"  moaned  the  owner,  "why  did  I  let 
you  touch  it!"     "Ingrate!"  replied  the  other  with 

[303] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

grim  humor.  *'Have  you  not  now  the  satisfaction 
of  knowing  your  fears  to  be  groundless,  and  my  own 
knowledge  to  be  trustworthy?  Look  at  the  pieces 
— without  doubt  the  statuette  was  genuine  I" 


[S04] 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

I.  The  Pleasures  of  Collecting 

The    Connoisseur.    By   Frederick   S.   Robinson. 

New  York.     1897. 
The  ABC  About  Collecting,    By  Sir  James 

Yoxall,  M.  P.     Philadelphia,     n.  d. 
First  Steps  in  Collecting.     By  Grace  M.  Vallois. 

London,     n.  d. 
Antiques  and  Curios  in  the  Home.     By  Grace  M. 

Vallois.     New  York.     n.  d. 
By-Paths  in  Collecting.     By  Virginia  H.  Robie. 

New  York.     1912. 
The  Lure  of  the  Antique.    By  Walter  A.  Dyer. 

New  York.     1916. 
II.  Collectors  of  Yesterday 

The  Lives  of  The  Twelve  Caesars.    By  C.  Sue- 
tonius Tranquillus.     Bohn  Edition.     London. 

1909. 
Horace     Walpole,     By    Austin    Dobson.     New 

York.     1893. 
The  Lives  of  the  Painters^  Sculptors  and  Archi- 
tects.    By    Giorgio    Vasari.     Translated    by 

A.  M.  Hinds.     London,     n.  d. 
The    Connoisseur.     By   Frederick   S.    Robinson. 

New  York.     1897. 
Anecdotes  of  Painting  in  England.     By  Horace 

Walpole.     London.     1849. 
III.  American  Tables 

Early    American    Craftsmen.    By    Walter    A. 

Dyer.     New  York.     1915. 

[305] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

Old  Furniture   Book.     By    N.    Hudson    Moore. 

New  York.     1903. 
The  Practical  Book   of  Period  Furniture,     By 

Harold   Donaldson   Eberlein   and   Abbot   Mc- 

Clure.     Philadelphia. 
IV.  Tea  and  Antiquity 

The  Book  of  Tea.     By  Okakura-Kakuzo.     New 

York.     1919. 
The    Gentleman   and   Cabinet-Makers'   Director. 

By  Thomas   Chippendale.     London.     1762. 
Tea    Leaves.     By    Francis    S.    Drake.     Boston. 

1884. 
V.  Cup-Plates 

Old  China  Book.     By  N.  Hudson  Moore.     New 

York.     1903. 
Chats  on  Old  Earthenware.     By  Arthur  Hay  den. 

New  York.     1909. 
The  Earthenware  Collector.     By  G.  Woolliscroft 

Rhead.     New  York.     1920. 
Staffordshire  Pots  and  Potters.     By  G.  Woollis- 
croft Rhead   and  Frederick  Alfred.     London. 

1906. 
The  Art  of  the  Old  English  Potter.     By  L.  M. 

Solon.     London.     1883. 
VI.  Chintz 

Chats  on  Cottage  and  Farmhouse  Furniture.     By 

Arthur  Hayden.     New  York.     n.  d. 
VII.  Pewter 

Pewter  and  the  Amateur  Collector.     By  Edwards 

J.  Gale.     New  York.     1909. 
Chats  on  Pewter.     By  H.  J.  L.  J.  Masse,  M.  A. 

[306] 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

VIII.  Samplers 

English    Embroideries.    By    A.    F.    Kendrick. 

London,     n.  d. 
Samplers      and      Tapestry      Embroideries,    By 

Marcus  B.  Huish.     London.     1900. 
The  Lace  Book.     By  N.  Hudson  Moore.     New 

York.     1904. 
History  of  English  Secular  Embroidery.     By  M. 

Jourdain.     London.     1910. 
IX.  Wax  Portraits 

Wax  Portraits  and  Silhouettes.     By  Ethel  Stan- 
wood  Bolton.     Boston.     1914. 
X.  Hand- Woven  Coverlets 

Quilts.     By  Marie  D.  Webster.     Garden  City. 

1915. 
XI.  Chairs 

Chats  on   Old  Furniture.     By  Arthur  Hayden. 

London.     1905. 
The  Furniture  of  our  Forefathers.     By  Esther 

Singleton.     New  York.     1900. 
The  Practical  Book   of  Period  Furniture.     By 

Harold  Donaldsen   Eberlein   and  Abbot  Mc- 

Clure.     Philadelphia. 
Decorative     Styles     and     Periods.     By     Helen 

Churchill  Candee.     New  York.     1906. 
Chats  on  Cottage  and  Farmhouse  Furniture.     By 

Arthur  Hayden.     New  York.     n.  d. 
Antique  Furniture.     By  Fred  W.  Burgess.     New 

York.     1915. 
XII.  English  Drinking-Glasses 

The  Glass  Collector.     By  Maciver  Percival. 
Early  English  Glass.    By  Daisy  Wilmer.     1910. 

[307] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

Glass.     By  Edward  Dillon.     London.     1907. 
Collecting    Old   Glass.     By   Sir   James   Yoxall. 

London.     1916. 
Old   English    Glasses.     By    Albert   Hartshorne, 

F.  S.  A.     London.     1897. 
English  Table  Glass.     By  Percy  Bate.     London. 

n.  d. 
xiii.  Stuart  Embroideries 

English    Embroideries.    By    A.    F.    Kendrick. 

London,     n.  d. 
History   of  English  Secular  Embroideries.     M. 

Jourdain.     London.     1910. 
XIV.  Delft 

The  Earthenware  Collector.    By  G.  Woolliscroft 

Rhead.     New  York.     1920. 
A  B    C  of  Collecting  Old  Continental  Pottery. 

By  J.  F.  Blacker.     Philadelphia,     n.  d. 
Dutch  Pottery  and  Porcelain.     By  W.  Pitcairn 

Knowles.     London,     n.  d. 
Delftware:  Dutch  and  English.    By  N.  Hudson 

Moore.     New  York.     1908. 
XV.  Early  Desk  Furniture 

Old  Furniture   Book.    By   N.   Hudson   Moore. 

New  York.     1903. 
Chats  on  Old  Furniture.    By  Arthur  Hayden. 

London.     1905. 
Antique    Furniture.    By     Fred.     W.     Burgess. 

New  York.     1915. 
XVI.  Chelsea 

Chelsea   and    Chelsea-Derby    China.    By   Egan 

Mew.     London,     n.  d. 
Bow,  Chelsea,  and  Derby  Porcelain.    By  Wil- 

[308] 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Ham     Bemrose,     F.     S.     A.     London,     1898. 

Porcelain:  a  Sketch  of  its  Nature^  Art  and  Manu- 
facture, By  William  Burton,  F.  C.  S.  Lon- 
don.    1906. 

English  Porcelain  Made  During  the  Eighteenth 
Century.  By  Sir  Arthur  Herbert  Church. 
London.     1904. 

Chats  on  English  China,  By  Arthur  Hay  den. 
New  York.     n.  d. 

The   China   Collector,     By  H.  William  Lewer, 
F.  S.  A.     New  York.     n.  d. 
XVII.  Wedgwood 

Chats  on  Old  Earthenware,  By  Arthur  Hayden. 
New  York.     1909. 

The  Earthenware  Collector,  By  G.  WooUis- 
croft  Rhead.     New  York.     1920. 

The  Ceramic  Gallery,  By  William  Chaffers. 
London.     1907. 

Josiah  Wedgwood^  Master  Potter,  By  A.  H. 
Church,  F.  R.  S.     London.     1894. 

The  Wedgwoods,  By  Llewellyn  Jewitt,  F.  S.  A. 
London.     1865. 

The  Life  of  Josiah  Wedgwood,  By  Eliza  Mete- 
yard.     London.     1865. 

A  Catalogue  of  Plaques^  Medallions,  Vases, 
Figures,  etc,  in  Coloured  Jasper  and  Basalte, 
produced  by  Josiah  Wedgwood,  F,  R,  S,  By 
Arthur  Sanderson.     London.     1901. 

The  Art  of  the  Old  English  Potter,  By  L.  M. 
Solon.     London.     1883. 

Stafordshire  Pottery  and  Its  History,  By 
Josiah  C.  Wedgwood.     London,     n.  d. 

[309] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

XVIII.  Saving  the  Pieces 

Glues  and  Cements,     By  H.  A.  S.  Cassal. 
The  Barberini  Vase,     Tiffany  &  Co.     New  York. 
1904. 

XIX.  Lounging  Furniture 

Old  Furniture   Book,     By   N.   Hudson   Moore. 

New  York.     1903. 
Chats  on   Old  Furniture.     By  Arthur  Hayden. 

London.     1905. 
The  Practical  Book   of  Period  Furniture,     By 

Harold   Donaldson   Eberlein   and  Abbot   Mc- 

Clure.     Philadelphia. 
Decorative     Styles     and     Periods.     By     Helen 

Churchill  Candee.     New  York.     1906. 
The  Furniture  of  Our  Forefathers,     By  Esther 

Singleton.     New  York.     1900. 
Antique  Furniture.     By  Fred  W.  Burgess,     New 

York.     1915. 

XX.  Sheffield  Plate 

Sheffield  Plate.  By  Bertie  Wyllie.  London, 
n.  d. 

Sheffield  Plate,  By  H.  N.  Veith.  London. 
1908. 

Old  Sheffield  Plate,  By  Julia  W.  Torrey. 
Boston.     1918. 

The  History  of  Old  Sheffield  Plate,  By  Fred- 
erick Bradbury.     London.     1912. 

XXI.  Straw  Marqueterie 

Rariora,     By    John    Eliot    Hodgkin,    F.   S.    A. 

London.     1900. 
Chats  on  Military  Curios,     By  Stanley  C.  John- 

[310] 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

son,  M.  A.,  D.  Sc,  F.  R.  E.  S.    New  York. 
n.  d. 

XXII.  Consoles 

Decorative  Styles  and  Periods.  By  Helen 
Churchill  Candee.     New  York.     1906. 

Chats  on  Old  Furniture,  By  Arthur  Hayden. 
London.     1905. 

A  History  of  Furniture.  By  Albert  Jacquemart. 
Translated  by  Mrs.  Bury  Palliser.     London. 

XXIII.  Sevres  Porcelain 

Pottery  and  Porcelain.  By  Frederick  Litchfield. 
London.     1880. 

Porcelain,  Oriental,  Continental  and  British.  By 
R.  L.  Hobson,  B.  A.     New  York.     1906. 

The  New  Chaffers.  By  William  Chaffers.  Lon- 
don.    1912. 

History  of  the  Ceramic  Art.  By  Albert  Jacque- 
mart. Translated  by  Mrs.  Bury  Palliser. 
London.     1873. 

Royal  Sevres.     By  Egan  Mew.     London,     n.  d. 

French  Pottery  and  Porcelain.  By  Henri 
Frantz.     London.     1906. 

XXIV.  European  Enamels 

Enamels.     By  Mrs.   Nelson  Dawson.     London. 

1906. 
Jewellery.     By       Cyril       Davenport.     London. 

1905. 
Art  of  Enamelling  on  Metals.     By  H.  Cunyng- 

hame.     London.     1906. 
Art  of  Enamelling  on  Metals.     By  A.  Fisher. 

London.     1906. 

[311] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

Chats    on    Old    Jewellery    and    Trinkets,     By 

Maclver  Percival. 
Handbook  of  the  Benjamin  Altman  Collection. 

Metropolitan    Museum   of   Art.     New   York. 

1915. 

X3CV.  The  Romance  of  a  Potter:  Bernard  Palissy 

A  History  of  Old  French  Faience.  By  L.  H. 
Solon.     London.     1903. 

CEuvres  Completes.  By  Bernard  Palissy. 
Paris.     1880. 

Bernard  Palissy.  By  Philippe  Burty.  Paris. 
1886. 

Palissy  the  Potter.  By  Henry  Morley.  Lon- 
don.    1852. 

Monographic  UCEuvre  de  Bernard  Palissy.  By 
MM.  C.  Delange  and  C.  Borneau.     Paris. 

French  Pottery  and  Porcelain.  By  Henri 
Frantz.     London.     1906. 

XXVI.  Italian  Maiolica 

A  History  and  Description  of  Italian  Maiolica. 

By  M.  L.  Solon.     London.     1907. 
Maiolica.     By  C.  Drury  E.  Fortnum,  F.  S.  A. 

London.     1892. 
Maiolica.     By  C.  Drury  E.  Fortnum,  F.  S.  A. 

Oxford.     1896. 
A  B   C  of  Collecting  Old  Continental  Pottery, 

By  J.  F.  Blacker.     Philadelphia,     n.  d. 
Maiolica.     By  L.  H.  Solon.     London. 

XXVII.  Glass  of  a  Thousand  Flowers 

Glass.  By  Edward  Dillon,  M.  A.  London. 
1907. 

[312] 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Glass  in  the  Old  World.    By  M.  A.  Wallace- 

Dunlop.     London.     1882. 
XXVIII.  Antiques  of  Persia  and  of  India 

The  Arts  (3   Crafts  of  India  (3   Ceylon,    By 

Ananda  K.  Coomaraswamy. 
A  B  C  of  Collecting  Old  Continental  Pottery, 

By  J.  F.  Blacker.     Phiadelphia.     n.  d. 
Chats  on  Old  Copper  and  Brass,     By  Fred  W. 

Burgess.     New  York.     n.  d. 
The  Industrial  Arts  of  India,     By  Sir  George  C. 

Molesworth.     London.     1880. 
Persian    Art.     By    Major   R.    Murdock    Smith, 

R.  E.     London. 
Indian   Painting,     By   Percy   Brown.     London. 

n.  d. 
A  Catalogue  of  the  Collection  of  Persian  ManU' 

scripts.  .  .  .  Presented    to    the    Metropolitan 

Museum   of  Art,   New    York,    by   Alexander 

Smith  Cochran.     By  A.  V.  Williams  Jackson 

and  Abraham  Yohannan.     New  York.     1914. 
Miniature  Painting  and  Painters  of  Persia,  India 

and    Turkey.     By    F.    R.    Martin.     London. 

1912. 
A  History  of  Fine  Art  in   India  and   Ceylon. 

Oxford.     1911. 
Porcelain,  Oriental,  Continental  and  British.     By 

R.  L.  Hobson,  B.  A.     New  York.     1906. 
XXIX.  Chinese  Porcelains 

Chinese  Art.     By  Stephen  W.  Bushell,  C.  M.  G., 

B.  Sc,  M.  D.     London.     1914. 
Chinese  Porcelain.     By  W.  G.  GuUand.     Lon- 
don.    1911. 

[313] 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

Porcelain,  Oriental,  Continental  and  British.  By 
R.  L.  Hobson,  B.  A.     New  York.     1906. 

Description  of  Chinese  Pottery  and  Porcelain. 
Being  a  Translation  of  the  T'ao  Shuo.  By 
Stephen  W.  Bushell,  C.  M.  G.,  B.  Sc,  M.  D. 
Oxford.     1910. 

Handbook  of  the  Benjamin  Altman  Collection. 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art.  New  York. 
1915. 

Catalogue  of  The  Morgan  Collection  of  Chinese 
Porcelains.  By  Stephen  W.  Bushell  and  Wil- 
liam M.  Laffan.     New  York.     1909. 

Chats   on    Oriental   China.     By   J.   F.   Blacker. 
New  York.     1908. 
XXX.  Chinese  and  Japanese  Lacquer 

Chinese  Art.  By  Stephen  W.  Bushell,  C.  M.  G., 
B.  Sc,  M.  D.     London.     1910. 

Japan  and  Its  Art.  By  Marcus  B.  Huish,  LL.  B. 
London.     1892. 

The  Arts  of  Japan,  By  Edward  Dillon.  Chi- 
cago.    1911. 

VArt  Japonais.     L.  Gonse.     Paris.     1883. 

Handbook  of  the  Benjamin  Altman  Collection, 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art.  New  York. 
1915. 

Le     Japon     Illustre,     By     Felicien     Challaye. 
Paris,     n.  d. 
XXXI.  Chinese  Snuff-Bottles 

Chinese  Art,  By  Stephen  W.  Bushell,  C.  M.  G., 
B.  Sc,  M.  D.     London.     1910. 

Chinese  Art  Motives  Interpreted,  By  Winifred 
Reed  Tredwell.     New  York.     1915. 

[314] 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Handbook  of  the  Benjamin  Altman  Collection. 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art.  New  York. 
1915. 

XXXII.  Cloisonne  Enamels  of  China  and  Japan 

Enamels.  By  Mrs.  Nelson  Dawson.  London. 
1906. 

The  Arts  of  Japan.  By  Edward  Dillon.  Chi- 
cago.    1911. 

Japan  and  Its  Art.  By  Marcus  B.  Huish,  LL.B. 
London.     1912. 

Chinese  Art.  By  Stephen  W.  Bushell,  C.  M.  C, 
B.  Sc,  M.  D.     London.     1910. 

Japanese  Enamels.  By  James  Lord  Bowes. 
London.     1886. 

Notes  on  Shippo.  By  James  Lord  Bowes.  Lon- 
don.    1895. 

Arts  and  Crafts  of  Old  Japan.  By  Stewart  Dick. 
Chicago.     1905. 

From  Sea  to  Sea.  By  Rudyard  Kipling.  Lon- 
don.    1899. 

Le  Japon  lllustre.  By  Felicien  Challaye. 
Paris,     n.  d. 

XXXIII.  Japanese  S word-Guards 

The  Arts  of  Japan.  By  Edward  Dillon.  Chi- 
cago.    1911. 

Japan  and  Its  Art.  By  Marcus  B.  Huish,  LL.B. 
London.     1912. 

Japanese  Art  Motives.  By  Maude  Rex  Allen. 
Chicago.     1917. 

Japanese  Sword-Mounts.  By  Henri  L.  Joly. 
London.     1910. 

[315I 


THE  PLEASURES  OF  COLLECTING 

Japanese    Szvord-Guards.     By    Kakuya    Okabe. 

Boston.     1908. 
Japanese   Sword-Fittings.     By    Henri    L.    Joly. 

London.     1912. 
Japanese  Marks  and  Seals,     By  James  L.  Bowes. 

London.     1882. 
Legend  in  Japanese  Art.     By   Henri   L.   Joly. 

London  and  New  York.     1908. 
Le     Japon     Illustre.     By     Fclicien     Challaye. 

Paris,     n.  d. 
XXXIV.  Medallic  Art 

Portrait  Medals  of  Italian  Artists  of  the  Renais' 

sance.     By  G.  F.  Hill.     London.     1912. 
Select  Italian  Medals  of  the  Renaissance  in  the 

British  Museum.     London.     1915. 
Pisanello.     By  G.  F.  Hill.     London.     1905. 
Biographical    Dictionary    of    Medallists,    Coin-, 

Gem-,  and  Seal- Engravers,  etc..  Ancient  and 

Modern.     By  L.  Forrer.     London.     1902. 
Coins  and  Medals;  Their  Place  in  History.    By 

the  Authorities  of  the  British  Museum  Official 

Catalogues.     Edited   by    Stanley   Lane-Poole. 

London.     1894. 
Coins,   Medals   and  Seals.     By   W.   C.   Prime. 

New  York.     1861. 
The  Art  of  the  Medal.     By  Victor  D.  Brenner. 

New  York.     1910. 
Catalogue   of   the   International   Exhibition   of 

Contemporary     Medals.      American     Numis- 
matic Society.     New  York.     1911. 
XXXV.  Engraved  Gems 

Intaglio      Engraving.    By      Edward      Renton. 

London.     1896. 

[316] 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Greek  Art.    By  H.  B.  Walters.     London.     1903. 
Engraved   Gems,    By  Duffield   Osborne.     New 

York.     1912. 
XXXVI.  Fraudulent  Art  Objects 

Trues  et    Truqueurs,    By  Paul   Eudel.     Paris, 

n.  d. 
The    Connoisseur.     By    Frederick   S.   Robinson. 

New  York.     1897. 
Vart    de    reconnaitre    les    fraudes.    By    fimilc 

Bayard.     Paris.     1914. 
The  following  magazines  devote  pages  monthly  to  articles 
of  especial  interest  to  collectors : 

House  &  Garden.     New  York. 

Arts  &  Decoration.     New  York. 

The  House  Beautiful.     Boston. 
'    The  Connoisseur.     London. 

The  Burlington  Magazine.    London. 


[317] 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Abacsenum,  site  of,  279 

Abaquesne,  203 

Abbas     the     Great,     Shah     of 

Persia,  234 
Abondio,  Antonio,  70 
Adam,  Robert,  168 
Adam,  the  brothers,   138 
Africanus,  glass-worker,  220 
Agathopus,  gem-engraver,  291 
Albi,  Council  of,  59 
Aldus  Manutius,  282 
Alexander  the  Great,  291 
Amenophis,  King  of  Egypt,  218 
Ancona,  Italy,  153 
Andrieni,    art-forger,    301 
Angelini,  129 

Anne,  Queen  of  England,  u8 
Apollonides,  gem-engraver,  291 
Ashberry  metal,  58 
Ashworth,   149 
Aspasios,  gem-engraver,  291 
Athenion,  gem-engraver,  291 
auctions,  art,  11,  12,  13,  98,  118, 

120 
Avignon,  200 


B 


Baccarat,  France,  226 

Bacon,  John,  129 

Barber,  Edwin  Atlee,  225 

Barberini  Vase,  130 

Barbosa,  Odoardo,  44 

Bartolozzi,  F.,  131 

basse  taille  enamels,  181 


[32 


Bassiano,  art-forger,  300 

Bastille,    208 

Beauclerk,  Lady  Diana,  129 

Beaufort,  Duke  of,  168 

Belli,  Valerio,   medallist,  283 

Benoit,  Antonio,  70,  71 

Bernardi,  medallist,  283 

Bibliography,  305 

Bibliotheque     Nationale,     Paris, 

14,  182,  199 
Birdwood,  232 
Boethos,  gem-engraver,  291 
Bolsover,  Thomas,  146,  147,  148 
bombe  front,  112 
bookcase,    Charles    Lamb's,    27; 

bureau,  107 
Boston  Tea-Party,  30,  32 
Botticelli,  Sandro,  108 
Boulton,  149 
Bow,  England,  46 
Bragg,  gem-engraver,  296 
Brenner,  Victor  D.,  284 
Brinkley,  Captain,  267 
Bristol  glassworks,  87 
Britannia  metal,   55,   58 
Brogniart,  171 
Brougham,  Lord,  3 
Bunsai,  252 

Burch,  gem-engraver,  296 
bureau,     107,     m;     -bookcase, 

107 
Burnet,  Bishop,  31 
Bushell,  Dr.  S.  V^.,  239,  242 


cabriole  legs,  21,  137 

1] 


INDEX 


Cadman,  Roberts  &,  150 
Carlyle's  table,  Thomas,  27 
Camberwell,    England,    31 
cameo  gem-engraving,  237 
Canton,  250,  257 
Castel  Durante,  216 
Cavino,  Giovanni  del,  300 
Caylus,  Comte  de,  15 
Cellini,  Benvenuto,  191,  201,  273, 

282,  295 
Cesati,  medallist,  283 
Ceylon,  antiques  of,  232 
ChaflFers,  William,  211 
chairs,  77-83 ;  Windsor,  78 
Champleve  enamel,  179 
Chang  Ying-wen,    Chinese    art- 
critic,  249 
Charles  I  of  England,  15;  II  of 

England,  34,  105 
Charlotte,    Queen    of    England, 

n8 
Chelsea  ware,  115-118,  124 
Ch'ien  Lung,  Emperor  of  China, 

243 

china-mending,  130 

Chinese  porcelains,  238-245 

Chinese  Taste,  48 

chintz,  42-50,  137 

Chippendale,  Thomas,  30; 
chairs,  genuine,  82 

Cipriani,  131 

Cliffords  Inn,  Pewter  Exhibi- 
tion, 52 

Chosroes,  jeweled  cup  of,  182 

cloisonne  enamels,  179,  262,  267; 
Chinese,  262;  Japanese,  262; 
relief,   179 

Clouet,  Frangois,  70 

Cluny,  Musee  de,  196 

cup-plates,  36-41 

Coomaraswamy,  Ananda,  232, 
236 

Colin,  189 

Constantine  the  Great,  293 


[3 


Corniole,  Giovanni  della,  295 
Consoles,     164;     English,     166; 

American,  166 
cotton-printing,  48 
cottons,  printed,  137 
couch,  135 
Court,  Jean,  i88 
Courtoys,  188 

coverlets,  hand- woven,  74-76 
Cowper,  134 

Crown  of  St.  Stephen,  182 
Cumberland  County,  New  Jersey 

"  Tea-Parties,"  30 
Cumberland,  Duke  of,  118 


Dalmazzioni,  129 

Dante,   211 

Dartmoor,  England,  163 

Davaere,  129 

Davenport  ware,  blue,  41 

daybed,  135 

Delia  Robbia,  Luca,  201,  211 

Delft,  English,  105;  Dutch,  98- 
105 ;  Lambeth,  103 ;  modern, 
102 

Derby,  120 

Deruta,  Italy,  raaiolica  of,  214 

desk  furniture,  early,  106-114 

De  Tabley,  Lord,  64 

De  Thou,  15 

Devonshire,  Duke  of,  296 

Dexamenos,  gem-engraver,  291 

diamond,  260 

Didier,  Martin,  188 

Dioskourides,  gem-engraver,  291 

Dobson,  Austin,  i6 

Donin,  Hirata,  Japanese  ar- 
morer, 275 

Drake,  Francis  S.,  32 

Dresden  porcelain,  influence  of, 
122 

Drinking-glasses,  English,  84-93 

22] 


INDEX 


Dupr^,  Guillaume,  70 
Du  Siraitiere,  49 


East  India  Company,  34 

Ecouen,   Chateau  de,  207 

Edenton   Tea-Party,    30 

Edward  I  of  England,  59 

Eley,  70 

Eliot's  chair,  George,  27 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  296 

Elkington,  Messrs,  150 

Ellis,  149 

Embroideries,    petit    point,    95; 

Stuart,    94-97;    Opus    Angli- 

canum,  96 
Empire    Style,    American,    140; 

English,  140 
enamelers,  Byzantine,   186,  263; 

Celtic,     264;     Chinese,     262; 

Japanese,  187,  268;  Lombardic, 

187 
enamels,      brass      taille,      181; 

champleve,  179,  264;  Chinese, 

262;  cloisonne,  178;  encrusted, 

182;  Gothic,  187;  Greek,  263; 

grisaille,     188;     Indian,    264; 

Japanese,   267;  Limoges,  264; 

painted,    264;    plique    a    jour, 

182;     relief     cloisonne,     179; 

repousse,    180,    264;    Russian, 

182;  Venetian,  183 
Epitynchanos,  gem-engraver,  291 
escritoires,    107 
Evans,  Arthur,  288 
Evelyn's  Diary,  84 


Federigo,  Duke  of   Urbino,  215 
Ferrara,  215 
Flanagan,  John,   284 
Flaxman,  John,  129 


Fondi,  Pietro,  art-forger,  301 

Fontana,  Annibale,  283;  Orazio, 
216 

Fontenay,  Julien  de,  gem-en- 
graver, 295 

Fortnum,  C.  D.  E.,  212,  214,  215 

France,  Anatole,  3,  198 

Francia,  Francesco,  281,  282 

Francis  I  of  France,  295 

Frangois,  Rene,  223 

Franklin,   Allegory  of,  49 

Franks,  Sir  A.  W.,  302 

Eraser,  James  Earle,  284 

fraudulent  art,  299 

Frederick  II  of  Prussia,  118 

fuchi,  273 

Fuchow,  250 

furniture,  early  desk,  106-114; 
lounging,  134-145 

Fushimi,  Japanese  armorer,  274 


G 


Gambello,   art-forger,   300 

Gammer  Gurton's  Needle,  62 

gems,  archaic  Greek,  288; 
Cretan,  288 ;  cameo,  237 ;  cul- 
minating Greek  period,  293 ; 
early  period,  293;  engraved, 
286-298;  Etruscan,  293; 
fraudulent,  301 ;  intaglio,  287, 
296,  301 ;  Poniatowski,  292, 
301 ;  prehistoric,  293  ;  Roman, 
293  ;  transitional  Greek  period, 
289 

George  II  of  England,  118;  III 
of  England,  296 

Ghirlandaio,  108 

Giorgio,  Maestro,  215 

Girard,  Stephen,  144 

glass,  American,  224;  carved, 
258 ;  Chinese,  257 ;  flint,  dis- 
covery of,  85;  mending,  130; 
millefiore,  88,  218-226;  Roman, 


[323] 


INDEX 


220;    Venetian,   221,   222,   223 
glasses,    English-drinking-,    84- 

93;   Leckie   Collection   of,  82; 

Jacobite,  90;  Williamite,  92 
glyptic  art,  Greek,  292 
gomroon,  117 
Gonse,  Louis,  268 
Gosset,   Isaac,  70 
Goto    Yujo,    Japanese    armorer, 

274 
Greatback,  William,  129 
Green,  W.,  &  Co.,  151 
Greenwich  Tea-Party,  30 
Grew,  gem-engraver,  296 
Grolier,  Jean,  15 
Greenland  Valleyfield,  England, 

163 
grisaille  enamels,  188 
Gubbio,  Italy,  maiolica  of,  214, 

214 
Guidobaldo  I,  Duke  of  Urbino, 

212 


H 


Hackwood,  William,  129 
haircloth  for  sofas,  introduction 

of,  82 
Hall  &  Sons,  John,  38 
Hamilton,  Sir  William,  130 
Hancock,  Joseph,  148 
Hardy,   Casper,  70 
Harte,  Dr.  Richard  H.,  71 
Havell,  232 
Hawksley,  149 
hawthorn  jars,  Chinese,  243 
Helbot,  173 
Henry   III   of   France,   208;   IV 

of  France,  209 
Hepplewhite,  George,  30,  82,  138 
Herakleides,   gem-engraver,  291 
Hedodotus,  219 
Herophilos,  gem-engraver,  291 
Hirschvogels,   the,   203 


[324] 


Hodgkin,    Dr.    John    Eliot,    156, 

i6i 
Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  32 
Hsiian   Te,   Emperor   of    China, 

249 
Howell,  Frederick  H.,  34 
Hung  Wu,   Emperor  of   China, 

248 
Hunt's  Spectacles,  Leigh,  29 
Hyllos,  gem-engraver,  291 


Incarville,  Pere  d',  249 

India,     antiques     of,     227-237; 

enamellers  of,  264 
intaglio  gem-engraving,  287,  296, 

301 
Island   Stones,   289 
lyebori,  274 


Japanese  straw  marqueterie,  157 
Jarman,  art-forger,  302 
Johnson,  Dr.  Samuel,  120,  220 
Jones,  R.,  43 
Josephine,    Empress   of    France, 

292 
Julius  II,  Pope,  281 


K 


Kaufmann,  Angelica,  141 
Kipling,  Rudyard,  267 
Kyoto,  268,  271 
K'ang  Hsi,   Emperor  of   China, 

242 
kashira,  273 
Kiuhaka,  Koma,  252 
Kojiri,  273 
Knowles,  99 
Kinai,  Japanese  armorer,  275 


INDEX 


Kaneiye,  Japanese  armorer,  273 

Kokatana,   272 

Korin,  252 

kozuka,  272 

kogai,  272 

kurikata,  273 

Koyetsu,  Honnami,  252 


lacquer,  Chinese,  246-252;  com- 
position, 247;  Japanese,  246, 
251 

Lamartine,  198 

Lamb's  bookcase,  Charles,  27 

La  Rochelle,  208 

Laudin,  Jean,  188,  189 

Leader,  Tudor  &,  149 

Leckie  Collection  of  glass,  86 

Leoni,  Leone,  70 

Limoges  enamels,  183,  187-189 

Limousin,  Jean,  189;  Leonard, 
189 

Li  Shi-chin,  Chinese  physician, 
256 

Lister,  Dr.  Martin,  116 

Liverpool,  England,  163 

Lounging  furniture,   134-145 

love-seat,  135 


M 


MacMonnies,  Frederick,  284 

mahogany,  22,  117 

maiolica,  Italian,  102,  210-217 

Majorca,  Island  of,  211 

Manship,  Paul,  284 

Marchant,  gem-engraver,  296 

Marie  Antoinette,  246 

Mariette,  Pierre  Jean,  15 

"  Marius  the  Epicurean,"  27 

marks,  Sheffield  Plate,  151;  on 
Chelsea,  123 ;  on  Chinese  por- 
celains,      244;       on      Derby- 

[32 


Chelsea,  123;  on  Italian 
maiolica,  2n ;  pewter,  59; 
Sevres,  170,  171,  172,  174,  175. 
176 

Marlborough,  296 

Martin,  232 

Marqueterie,  Straw,  153 

Mayenne,  Due  de,  208 

Masse,  Welch,  52 

Mazarin,  Cardinal,  15 

medallic  art,  278-285 

medals,  278-285;  care  of,  284; 
cast,  283 ;  struck,  283 

Medici,  Catherine  de',  208; 
Lorenzo  de',  14;  Piero  de',  14 

mending  glass,  pottery  and  por- 
celain, 130 

menuki,  273 

Michelangelo,  299 

Micheletto,  gem-engraver,  295 

millefiore  glass,  88 

Mitsutsune,  Japanese  armorer, 
273 

Montmorency,  Constable  de,  202 

Morris,  William,  46 

Mountstephen,  George,  70 

Mundy,  Ethel  Frances,  72 

Murano,  Italy,  222 

Museums,  British,  45,  281 ; 
Cluny,  196;  Dresden,  207; 
Louvre,  196,  246;  Metropol- 
itan; Nazionale,  282;  Pennsyl- 
vania, 224;  Sevres,  X96;  Vic- 
toria and  Albert,  196,  266; 
Wallace,  196 

Mycenae,  288 

Mykon,  gem-engraver,  291 


N 


Nimes,  200;  Council  of,  59 
nanakoji,  274 

Nassaro,  Matteo,  gem-engraver, 
29s 


51 


INDEX 


Natsuo,  Kano,  Japanese  ar- 
morer, 276 

Nero,  12,  220 

Nikandrus,  gera-engraver,  291 

Nobuiye,  Miochin,  Japanese  ar- 
morer, 274 

*'  Nollekens,  Life  of,"  120 

Norman  Cross,  England,  160, 
162 

Nuremberg,  203 


Ognissanti,  Church  of  the,  108 
Okakura-Kakuzo,  239 
Old  Ford,  England,  46 
Onesus,  gem-engraver,  291 
Opus  Anglicanum,  96 
Orange,  William  of,  99 
Osaka,  Japan,  272,  275 


Pacetti,  129 

Palissy,  Bernard,  191-209;  302; 

Mathurin,  208 ;  Nicolas,  208 
Palissy  ware,  imitations  of,  302 
Paleologue,  M.,  250 
Palazzo  Venezia,  Rome,  281 
Pamphilos,  gem-engraver,  291 
paper-weights,  glass,  226 
Paracelsus,   199 
Passeri,  213 

Pastonino,  medallist,  70,  284 
Pater,  Walter,  27 
Paul  II,  Pope,  281 
Pegge,  Mr.,  of  Beauchief,  147 
Pepys's  Diary,  Samuel,  38 
Penicaud,  Jean,  188,  189 
Penn's  Treaty  With  the  Indians, 

William,  49 
Pennsylvania  Dutch,  22 
Peterborough,  162 

[32 


Percy,  S.,  70,  7X 

Persia,   antiques  of,   227-237 

Pesaro,  Italy,  213 

petit  point  embroideries,  95 

Petrarch,   Francesco,  9,   10 

Petronius,  12,  220 

pewter,  51-52;  care  of,  60;  com- 
position of,  55;  exhibition  at 
Cliffords  Inn,  52;  marks,  59 

Pewterers'  Company,  London, 
53 ;   French,  53 

Phyfe,  Duncan,  24,  25 

Phaedrus,  299 

Philadelphia  Tea-Party,  30 

Philostratus,  185 

Pisano,  medallist,  283 

Pliny,  69,  218,  297,  299;  the 
Younger,   9,    n,    12 

plique   a  jour  enamels,   263 

Polycrates,  290 

Pompadour,  Madame  de,  15,  246 

Ponset,  189 

Poniatowski  gems,  292,  301 

Pope,  Alexander,  29 

porcelain,  Chelsa,  170;  Chinese, 
48,  235,  238-245;  Derby,  170; 
Dresden,  170;  hard,  173;  imi- 
tation Sevres,  302 ;  influence  of 
Sevres,  122;  mending,  130; 
Sevres,  170-177;  Vincennes, 
117;  Worcester,  170 

Portables,  167 

Portland,  Duchess  of,  131;  Duke 
of,  131 ;  Vase,  130 

Pottery,  mending,  130;  Persian, 

234 
Prisoners  of  War,  160 
Proculus  of  Perinthus,  222 
Protarchos,  gem-engraver,  291 


Q 


Queen  Anne    118 

6] 


INDEX 


Raphael,  212 

Raphael  ware,  213 

"  Rariora,"  156 

Ravenna,  Holy,  215 

Raymond,   Pierre,   189 

Renan,  lo 

Repousse  enamels,  180;  oriental, 

181 
Richmond-on-Thames,  46 
Rentons,  gem-engravers,  296 
rhus  vernicifera,  247 
Rimini,  Italy,  215 
Robbia,  Luca  della,  201,  2H 
Roberts  &  Cadman,   150 
Roty,  283 
Roubillac,  129 
Rouen,  France,  203 
Ruow,  Peter,  70,  71 
Russian  enamel,   182 


sageo,  273 

Saint  Cloud  faience,  117 

Saint-Gaudens,  Augustus,  280, 
284 

Saintonge,  France,  200 

San  Miniato,  Florence,  154 

Samplers,  61-67 

Scarabs,  Egyptian,  288 

secretaires,  107 

settee,  135 

Sevres  porcelain,  170-177;  imita- 
tion, 302 ;  influence  on  Chelsea, 
122 

Shakespeare,  William,  67 

Sheffield  Plate,  146-152;  imita- 
tion, 150;  modern,  151 

Sheraton,  167 

Sheraton,  Thomas,  139 

Smith,  Joachim,  70 

Smith,  Vincent,  232 

snuff-bottles,  253 


sofas,  135,  introduction  of  hair- 
cloth   for,    82 

Solon,  gem-engraver,  291 

Soleyman,  Arab  chronicler,  239 

spectacles,  Leigh  Hunt's,  29 

Sprimont,   Nicholas,    119 

St.  Bartholomew's  Eve,  Massacre 
of,  208 

St.  Louis,  Alsace-Lorraine,  226 

St.  Stephen,  Crown  of,  182 

Stapleton,  England,  163 

Stothard,  Thomas,  129 

Stevenson  &  Williams,  Ralph,  39 

Still,  John,  62 

Straw  Marqueterie,  153-163; 
Japanese,  157;  Italian,  i6i ; 
French  162 

Strawberry  Hill,  7,  i6,  98,  120 

Stuart  embroideries,  94-97 

Stubbs,  George,  129 

Subbs,  Joseph,  39 

Stubbe's  "  Anatomy  of  Abuses," 
61 

Suetonius,  13 

swoxd-guards,  Japanese,  270- 
277 ;  styles  of,  276 

Symbolism,  Chinese,  260 


Tables,  American,  18-25 
tambour-top,  n 
Tassie,  James,  127,  129 
Tate,  Nahum,  33 
Taylor,  John,  65 
tea  and  antiquit>',  26-35 
"  Tea-Leaves,"  32 
Terapletown,  Lady,  129 
textiles,  Persian,  233 
Thi,  Queen  of  Egypt,  219 
Thackeray,  William  M.,  6 
Theodorus,  290 
Thomas,  Isaiah,  31 
Thornhill,  Sir  James,  120 


[327I 


INDEX 


tiles,  Persian,  236 
Tokyo,  268,  271 
Toutin,  189 
Tsao  Ch'ao,  248 
tsuba,  z^o-z'j'j  ;^tyles  of,  276 
Tsunekechi,  Kaji,  268 
Tu,  Chinese  poet,  239 
Tudor  &  Leader,  149 
Tuileries,    14;    Gardens   of  the, 
208 


U 


Umetada,  Japanese  armorer,  274 
Urbino,  Italy,  213,  215 


Vasari,  Giorgio,  72,  279,  295 
Vase,  Barberini,  130;  Portland, 

58 
Venetian  enamels,  183 
Venice,  St.  Mark's,  180 
Victoria    and    Albert    Museum, 

London,  159,  182 
Vigier  (Jean  Court),  188 
Vincennes,  soft  porcelain  of,  117 
Vinci,  Leonardo  da,  201 
Voltaire,  15 


W 

wakizashi,  273 
Wallace-Dunlop,  M.  A.,  221 


Waller,  31 

walnut,  82 

Walpole,  Horace,  7,  16,  98,  X15, 
ii6,  119,  122 

Walters,  Dr.,  289 

Walton,  Isaac,  3 

Washington,  George,  71,  72;  al- 
legory of,  49;  apotheosis  of, 
49;  Trumbull's  portrait  of,  49 

Watkins,  118 

wax  portraits,  68-73 

Webber,  129 

Wedgwood,     Josiah,     125,     126, 

131 
Wedgwood    ware,    8,    125-129; 

designers,    129;    marks,    129; 

medallions,  127 
Weigall,  gem-engraver,  296 
willow-pattern,  40 
Wilson,  Joseph,  147 
Wilson,  149 

woodblock  printing,  chintz,  45 
Wright,  150 
Wright,  Joseph,  71,  72;  Patience, 

71,  72 
Wu   Tao-tzu,    Chinese    painter, 

253 


Yamakichi,     Iranken,     Japanese 

armorer,  274 
Yokohama,  268 
Yoxall,  Sir  James,  3 
Yung  Cheng,  Emperor  of  China, 

241 


[328] 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 


TE 


RETURN  TO  the  circulation  desk  of  any 
University  of  California  Library 

or  to  the 

NORTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 
BIdg.  400,  Richmond  Field  Station 
University  of  California 
Richmond,  CA  94804-4698 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

•  2-month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling 
(510)642-6753 

•  1-year  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing 
books  to  NRLF 

•  Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made 
4  days  prior  to  due  date 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


—  APR  2  6  2006 


DD20  12M   1-05 


/ 


k 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CAUFORNIA  LIBRARY 


•   ..     .*•••' 


'.:■/". 


